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July 2006
Where in the world is Amy Hardee? In the Pass, of
course! |
| Last month Amy Hardee left Hillsborough
NC for Pass Christian MS, where she has been volunteering
since Sept. 2005. She has made no less than 7 week long
trips over the course of 9 months. Now she is spending
her summer months in Mississippi to continue helping people
get back on their feet. |
| No stranger to this sort of work (she
had spent her summers for the last six years in NYC doing
mission work), she arrived in the Pass June 9th and immediately
set to task. One of her first stops was to check in with
the Harshburgers. While not much had happened during the
month of May (hardly
any volunteers came to town), things were beginning to
happen again. Eighty-nine year old Agnes and ninety –five
year old Clem are doing well, but VERY anxious to have
their home finished, so they can move in. They are so close
they “can almost taste it.” The kitchen cabinets,
which were built by Ms. Agnes’ nephew (and hauled
in from Texas!) are in and look beautiful. The doors are
hung and the trim is up. The only dilemma now is to get
the bathroom finished (flooring and sheet rocking installed).
Amy noted the couple looked very tired and that it clearly
has been a hard year on them. |
| Shortly after Amy arrived in the Pass,
my 14 year old son Spencer and I joined her. While Amy
had a “job” for me to do (more on that later),
Spencer in the meantime would be volunteering, doing what “unskilled
laborers” do best: work wherever needed. His first
job was to help at Elizabeth Hart’s house on 2nd
Street. |
| All the wiring and plumbing still needed
to come out, and debris removed from around the house.
Fortunately, he was not alone. The Union Grove United Methodist
youth group from Hillsborough NC arrived the day after
we did, and together they all set about working on Elizabeth’s
house. It was backbreaking work, in the heat of a Mississippi
summer, but the group was incredible! Within just a few
days, they were able to pull out all the wiring and plumbing
(including fixtures), even from underneath the house (along
with all the debris that had washed up under the house!)
In just one day a rented container was filled with shingles,
bits of trees and shrubs, wood, concrete and even a tub.
All hauled and dumped by a bunch of teenagers! |
While one group worked at Elizabeth’s
house that week, other UGUMC kids went to work at other
places. One such place was the home of retiree Catherine
(or Kitty, as she is called) Young. Kitty’s home
had been so severely damaged that everyone who came to
inspect it thought it needed to be razed. The amount of
water and debris had literally caused the floors of her
century old home to buckle. Kitty, however, held strong.
She was determined to save the home in which she grew up.
It just took the right people to help her. Tommy Tuck was
one of those people. After he investigated the situation,
he determined that if he could get the heart of pine planking
up, the next team of skilled carpenters could perhaps tackle
the job of fixing the joists. Since Tommy was a licensed
contractor in the state of NC, and had experience laying
wood floors, he said to Kitty, “Who better to take
up hardwood floors than someone who used to lay them?” While
the kids worked, southern hospitality still reigned. Kitty,
despite living in a FEMA trailer behind her home, pulled
together all the “fixin’s”. She served
lemonade, iced tea and sodas, along with cookies and other
munchies. After a couple of days, under Tommy’s instruction,
the teens finished the job, having painstakingly removed
each plank. Since they did such a wonderful job, the next
teams who came out to work at Kitty’s were not only
able fix the joists in the living room, but the space created
by the Hillsborough group allowed enough area for them
to crawl under the house to address the bedrooms on either
side which also had been affected, thus saving those bedrooms.
Now a man has agreed to rework the old heart of pine wood
from the living room to relay them.
One of the groups was sent to Larry and Mary Yarborough’s,
to lay tile in their bathroom, thus putting the final touches
on their house. Originally thought to be a _ day job, it
turned into a full five day (10 hr/per day) job and very
few volunteer groups may have accomplished what they did.
The Yarboroughs were so THRILLED with the job the UGUMC
group did that they have given tours of their “showcase” bathroom.
Excellent job! |
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| Lou Rizzardi with UGUMC members |
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| removing
plumbing from under the house |
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| Amy with
NY leader at Anne James’ house |
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| A smaller group
helped a little old lady on Seal Ave. Amy and I found while
scouting one day. She was sitting outside, trying to escape
the heat of her FEMA trailer. The FEMA trailer steps can actually
be quite treacherous for the elderly, and many injuries have
already been reported, so the team created a platform area
with wood steps for her. While it didn’t help with the
heat, it did help with her safety. The fact that someone came
out to help made her feel so happy, that she has since put
out flowers on the step area to “brighten up the place.” |
| Another UGUMC group
tackled the outdoors: Kathleen Quinn needed help around the
outside of her home, and under Suzy Zarzar’s tutelage
a smaller group of teens tamed the overgrowth. |
| Coming from a different
perspective, it’s often hard for an outsider to comprehend
the importance of helping wherever help is needed; whether
that help is inside or outside a home. For those facing the
daily overwhelming work of rebuilding, trying to “do
it all” is just NOT possible and something has to “give.” The
people are simply TIRED of being tired. Thankfully, with people
like Suzy and other volunteers willing to work outside, it
gives hope to the person, who is then so grateful, and afterwards
feel like “Ok…I can take it from here.” And
they do! |
| One thing as a
volunteer I have learned over the past months, is how important
it is to let go of OUR expectations and perspectives. We have
to be willing to go where the NEED is…and to remember
it is not OUR need, but the needs of those whom we serve. |
| There are also
times when our desire is beyond our capability, and that too
is important to recognize. There was one family Amy had hoped
to help: a single mother and young teen son whose 840sq foot
home was ruined. The house on Seal Avenue still stood, but
much work needed to be done. The first few groups Amy took
to see how they might help, recognized that their skill level
just wasn’t up to the task. By the time I left at the
end of June, Amy had not only found a group up to the challenge,
but they had already gotten the old roof off and were in the
process of setting in new trusses. Once again it was a youth
group, this time from NY, led by two contractors! |
God bless the YOUTH!
That same group from New York also bestowed upon the Pass a
WONDERFUL gift: TOOLS! The town has had no tools for volunteers
to use and the situation was becoming overwhelming. With the
warm weather and rain, weeds were thick and as high as a young
child. Amy had purchased some tools thanks to donations from
Hillsborough and Orange County NC residents, such as one mower
and weed eater along with some hand tools. Thanks to the NY
group and some gift cards supplied by Home Depot for the town,
Amy and Alderman Rizzardi went shopping and were able to purchase
more mowers and tools! Now, Amy can keep as many as 50 volunteers
working at a time!
It is thanks to all of you. Your interest, compassion, generosity and prayers
have helped keep things moving along. Please keep them coming! |
God bless!
Gayane Chambless |
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