Our Activities

Listed below are the news articles for the month of July.

July 07, 2006

Report on the Katrina Relief trip, June 2006

Yes! Katrina did pack a whallop but the Southerners pride and their love for their state is winning out! When I was down there in January I wondered how the South would ever rise again but visiting it now only 5 months later reassured me that it would and in a grand way. The volunteers from all over the country and even some from other countries have been working feverishly alongside of those victims that are physically able to help. Unfortunately many of the victims are just to old or physically unable to do much themselves but they certainly are grateful for all the support and help.

On June 10th , 10 of your Trinity Family members headed off to New Orleans and Long Beach Mississippi to help rebuild the homes that were not fully destroyed. It was quite an experience for all of us. We call the group OPEN HEARTS-OPEN HANDS and it is open to anyone who would like to become involved in supporting the Katrina victims either by being on the steering committee, going on one of our scheduled trips or sponsoring a scholarship to help offset the costs. The current members who headed off on this trip were June LaBarre, Dianne and Caity Savage, A.J. Molena, Trudy Minkler, Frannie Kischnik, Pat Herbes, JB and Gayle Brahy and grandaughter Nicole Guttormsen.

We spent Saturday night in New Orleans then attended Peter Claver Catholic Church at 9:00am Sunday. We were hosted by 2 wonderful ladies,Mary and Betty who took us on a tour of the New Orleans devestation after church services.

Then we headed off for Long Beach, Mississippi to begin our work. We arrived early enough to set up our cots amongst the other volunteers then we had a meeting at 5:45 to get brought up to speed on what was going on and to assign work positions for the various on campus jobs such as data input, meeting with victims to take their information for processing their applications. Gayle worked on data input or meeting with victims all week while Diane and June spent a day at it. Other jobs on campus included garbage pickup, kitchen help and serving meals. Everyone rotated doing this very important support work while the rest would be in the field doing light framing work, hanging sheetrock, mudding taping, and sanding. Pat spent the week organizing and checking out the tools.

The first day I took my crew which consisted of Frannie, Trudy, Caity, Nicole, and A.J., to a home that was in pretty bad shape from flood waters but suffered no real structural damage. The old sheetrock had been replaced on about a third of the house so we hung the rest and taped and mudded the whole house. We sanded it so it would be ready to paint.

The next day June and Diane joined us as we moved to another house to work. It was very interesting meeting the owners and listening to their stories.

We will be meeting on July 18th to share our experiences and download ideas for the next trip which is expected to be in February or March 2007. We will probably go a 2nd time in May or June trying to avoid the heat and the beginning of the hurricane season. We have taken many pictures and we will have a presentation in the Fall. Some pictures are on my website at brahy.com from my January trip and by the end of July the pictures from our most recent trip should be posted on my website.

If you have any questions or would like to be a part of this very rewarding experience please feel free to contact any one of us.

Peace and Love
JB Brahy