Hurricane Katrina Effort

Our New Orleans Ministry has been traveling to New Orleans to rebuild homes since Katrina devastated the area 2005. We are about to embark on our 4th visit this coming January. Our work is accomplished under the auspices of the St. Bernard Project (SBP) which makes the best use of our talents. To date they have rebuilt 158 homes in the area.

Six weeks ago one of the two founders of SBP, Liz McCartney, was one of ten people nominated to be CNN Hero of the Year. She received the top honor at Saturday night's taping of "CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute" at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. Liz, who received $100,000 to continue her work, was selected from among the top 10 CNN Heroes after six weeks of online voting at CNN.com. More than one million votes were cast. "To the country and the world, I ask you to please join us," McCartney said. "Together we can continue to rebuild families' homes and lives... If you join us, we'll be unstoppable."

The following is a note that we received from Liz last weekend:

Greetings! It is tough to find the right words, but thanks so much for believing in SBP and our clients to such a significant extent that I (on behalf of SBP) won the 2008 CNN Hero Award. The outpouring of support from the SBP family has been inspiring and encourages me as we look ahead to several more years of rebuilding work in St. Bernard Parish – and soon in New Orleans and other flood-devastated areas. I am posting a more detailed thank you note on the website, so please check it out -stbernardproject.org. Please also thank all of your family/friends/colleagues/neighbors for a great get-out-the-vote effort. You all have given St. Bernard Parish the attention and love that it deserves. I’d like to ask you to reach out to your email lists – people who voted for me – and ask them to visit the SBP website to view my letter of thanks.

I would also like to ask you to ask your friends to keep voting:
With their feet, by volunteering with St. Bernard Project
With their voices, by encouraging – like you did – others to join us
With their wallets by funding our rebuilding or mental health programs

In two and a half years, SBP has grown from a 2-person shop into an effective and efficient community/ house/life rebuilding organization. We have done so because people like you view the problems in St. Bernard Parish and New Orleans as solvable and because each of you has become part of the solution. We’re not done – not by a long stretch. But for the families who are home, we have made a difference. I ask you to stay with us, grow with us as we work to treat residents of St. Bernard Parish the way that we would want our family members to be treated.

Thanks for Everything!,
Liz  

The church will have it's next Hurricane Katrina trip in January 2009. Fourteen volunteers have offered to help with plumbing, electrical, carpentry, painting, spackling, and general cleanup. They will be down in New Orleans between January 11th and January 17th. They will be staying in Camp Hope (an abandoned high school) run by the Habitat for Humanity organization. Contact Chip Cronauer for more information about the Hurricane Katrina efforts.