Ten young adult corpsmembers have been selected to make up MCC's contingent of the Gulf Coast Recovery Corps. The crew of ten will join other corps and volunteer groups to repair the William H. Kelley Retreat Center. The project is headed by St. Rose De Lima Catholic Church and a secular non-profit, HandsOn Gulf Coast.
During the hurricane, the retreat center received six feet of floodwater, and the building has since been gutted. Currently the building is being restored so it can be a base for volunteers coming to work in the gulf.
The retreat center is located in Hancock Parish (county), where prior to Hurricane Katrina there were 20,000 housing units. Approximately 17,000 of these homes sustained damage from the storm. Since the storm, many people have moved back, but there are more than 9,400 FEMA trailers in the area. The need for volunteers is help rebuild will be long-term and substantial. Having a safe place for volunteers to stay is essential in the recovery effort as hundreds of volunteers will be in the area for a long time to come.
Monday, October 9, 2006
Hello Minnesota,
The first week of our project has gone extremely well and has exceeded many initial expectations. The crews have been working, on average, 8 hours a day 5 days a week. The majority of us are working at the St. Rose Volunteer Center in the town of Waveland. This work entails hanging sheetrock, as well as preparing the sheetrock for paint and primer through the use of mud and sanding. Everyone is now prepared to entirely remodel the MCC office if need be. In addition, three people (Katie, Karen, and Drew) have been working with one of our volunteer coordinators on a home near the ocean. Their responsibilities include, but are not limited to those already listed above at the volunteer center. As far as our weekend/off work time, the social gatherings have been neverending. We've been making many connections with NCCC and other Americorps volunteers. Several of them have even made mention of the possibility of moving to our beautiful state... This last week has included numerous multi-corps games of kick ball, a sock hop in Waveland, a Charlie Daniels show, and our first treck out to New Orleans. We are all excited for the oncoming week and the new Persevere chainsawing project. We will continue to spread the good word of Minnesota and the MCC.
Thanks,
GCR Crew
Monday, October 9, 2006
Crew featured on WWLTV - Lousiana television station
New wave of volunteers arrive to help with Katrina recovery.
