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I recently traveled with a team from my church to St Bernard Parish in New Orleans LA and spent a week helping with home building and restoration of a community center.The team has been assisting the folks in St Bernard’s Parish since the Hurricane 10 years ago. This trip we provided assistance to, St Bernard’s Project which was partially funded and managed by AmeriCorps. The St. Bernard Project’s Rebuilding Program rebuilds homes for senior citizens, people with disabilities and families with children who cannot afford to have their homes rebuilt by contractors. For clients who can afford supplies, the St. Bernard Project provides supervised volunteer labor. For clients who cannot afford supplies, the St. Bernard Project buys the supplies and provides the labor. We also spent half a day assisting a local church restore their community center. My goal was to help the people of St Bernard Parish rebuild after Katrina and multiple contractor scams.I’ve always been a bit skeptical about many domestic rebuilding and volunteer projects. There are so many sources for aid and it has been so long since Katrina. A friend who has organized 7 Katrina rebuilding trips said I should go along and experience it firsthand. Many of the folks received grants for rebuilding but continue to remain homeless and broke because of dishonesty and fraud. It was really an eye opening experience to meet the homeowner and talk about all the difficulties he has encountered since losing everything 10 years ago. We were able to remove the damaged sheathing and finish most of the outside of the home. Installed windows, doors, sheathing, Tyvek and siding. The folks from St Bernard’s Project were very happy to have a team headed up by a professional general contractor. Through exceptional teamwork we were able to make more progress in a week than they typically accomplish in a month with high school and college volunteers. Steve Prange
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