Monday, January 15, 2007

St. James Building Blitz

St. James' Episcopal Church in Jackson, Mississippi, and their priest, Christopher Powell raised $100,000 and built 3 cabins for residents of the Coast who lost their houses in Katrina. The week-long building blitz included work by 80 volunteers housed at Camp Coast Care, a project of Lutheran Episcopal Services in Mississippi (LESM).

(Jackson) Though Katrina occurred nearly 18 months ago, nearly 140,000 are still homeless from the storm. Immediately after the storm, members of St. James’ Episcopal Church became very active in relief efforts, donating financial resources, time and talent to construct a series of cabins on the Gulf Coast for families displaced from Hurricane Katrina.

More than 65 volunteers from St. James and five states are working together on the Coast for one week with the goal of constructing three cabins from start to finish, including providing the homes with furnishings. The group is being sponsored by the Lutheran Episcopal Services in Mississippi LESM is a non-profit organization that provides a wide range of services and ministry for at-risk persons in the Magnolia State.

“The mission of the volunteers has evolved from providing the basic necessities of food, water and shelter. Now, they are providing construction assistance. It is estimated that 54 new homes need to be constructed every day for the next ten years to rebuild the Coast to Pre-Katrina stage,” said Carol Penick, LESM director of development.
Christopher Powell, rector of St. James Episcopal Church, is leading the church’s relief effort.

“In the first week we came down with 50 volunteers and we toted as much in the way of supplies that we could. Everyone has a number of families and friends who were affected by this,” said Powell.
“From the early stages this has been a joint effort between the Lutherans and the Episcopalians. The Lutherans have a lot of experience with disaster relief. They have an actual handbook that church denominations use when they’re dealing with normal-sized disaster, but in this case none of the handbooks were applicable because there was no surrounding community to go to get the resources! Everyone jokes that we’re building the airplane as we’re flying, since no one has had previous experience with disasters this size.

“Nationally we are in communion with the Evangelical Church of America- so we’re already partners both in ecumenical dialogue and our work coordinating and consolidating resources, so that we do not duplicate efforts on the Coast,” said Powell.

The group is residing at Camp Coast Care, a Christian community of faith that provides welcome and hospitality to any volunteer wishing to serve in the Hurricane Katrina recovery effort. The camp is located on the campus of Coast Episcopal School in Long Beach.
“We had thirteen churches damaged and six lost, we needed a place to minister not only to our parish members and clergy but also to the vast number of other folks who live in the community,” said Powell. 
Since the first days after Hurricane Katrina, the camp has provided survivors with a distribution center for food, cleaning supplies, personal hygiene products, clothing, and free medical services. Now, Camp Coast Care hosts thousands of volunteers from all over the world who come to clean out and rebuild lives, homes, and communities.
“This is the longest serving base because it has the best facilities,” said Powell.

Volunteer work crews composed of all levels of unskilled and skilled labor, such as sheetrock installers, carpenters, roofers, plumbers, and electricians, are organized daily to go out into the communities to help residents. There are also on-campus jobs for volunteers that are vital to camp campus life. These include social work intake, kitchen and dining room assistants, facility and grounds maintenance, data entry, and general office work,” said Mike Huseth, LESM Chairman of the Board.

“We’re currently at the beginning of our full rebuilding effort. Our volunteers are working on these three rebuilds but we spend most of the time rehabilitating homes that are salvageable. With homeowner’s permission we do everything from sheetrock to light carpentry. Volunteers who come to Camp Coast Care come for days or weeks at a time during the spring break and Christmas break- we have a lot of college students.”

Local St. James parishioners have contributed well over $100,000 toward the Katrina relief effort, including building expenses.
“We’ve donated a large heavy duty truck with dual wheels on the back, a one-ton pickup truck that is used everyday for moving heavy trailers and equipment.  In addition, we’ve been able to partner with Puckett Machinery who has been extremely generous. They’ve given us the use of three pieces of heavy equipment and a trailer for as long as we’re in business.
“And we’ve developed some other partners. Harrell Construction has donated the use of some of their carpenters for this week, Stuart Irby has donated some of the electrical, and we have some roofing that has been donated.”

The goal is to construct three 700 sq. ft. homes by Jan. 13, 2007. Cabins will be constructed on the homeowners’ property: two in Pass Christian and one in Gulfport.
“We are replacing living spaces- these are who people live on social security and are too old to get any type of loan. These are people who, after the FEMA trailers are taken away, would be homeless,” said Powell.

Powell’s group focuses the immediate needs of the residents who have been patiently waiting for federal assistance, which is still in the pipeline.
“We want to build a little momentum- not only for Camp Coast Care but also for the residents-every time a new home goes up it’s a sign of hope to those who live here. We’re doing this because the Lord asked us to and because the needs are so obvious. We’re not trying to do everything- we’re just trying to do our part,” concluded Powell.
For more information, please contact LESM at 601-352-7215, or visit the following Web sites: www.lesm.org and www.campcoastcare.com.

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