|
|
|
Mike McBride returned from New Orleans last week, feeling like he did something positive.
“There’s more to life than a paycheck,” he said, after joining 23 other Irondequoit residents, all members of Christ the King, St. Cecilia’s, St. Margaret Mary, St. Thomas the Apostle and St. Salome’s churches, on a work trip to New Orleans last month.
Six years after Hurricane Katrina devastated much of New Orleans, McBride and the group saw, firsthand, the incredible amount of work that still needs to be done.
“It’s pretty dramatic. Some of these people have been out of their houses for six years and don’t know how they’ll get back in,” McBride said. “People were so appreciative of the work we did.”
McBride, who is a housing inspector for the city of Rochester and also volunteers as a Habitat for Humanity coordinator for homes city workers build, worked on a crew in New Orleans that jacked up a house, righted it, and made sure it was structurally sound.
“This was in what I’d call a marginal neighborhood, but the house was all the lady who owned it had ... and it had been just a shell — and crooked — for six years,” McBride said. “She was as thrilled as could be (at the work that was done). You would have thought it was an Extreme Makeover — but it wasn’t that extreme or lavish. We just made her house level and secure.”
He and the other volunteers battled 95 degree heat and 95 percent humidity during their work week, McBride said, and learned to drink a lot of water, even before they started working.
“You have to pace yourself; you’re not going to set any records,” McBride said.
He said he had wanted to go down to New Orleans five years ago, but it never worked out.
“When I saw this opportunity, I jumped at it,” McBride said.
The trip was coordinated by Irondequoit’s Ed Knauf, who was making his fourth trip to New Orleans.
He said 28 people from St. Margaret Mary, his church, went in 2009, and another 14 from St. Margaret Mary went in 2010.
“This year, since we’re now a combined Irondequoit parish, I spoke with (Pastor) Father (Norman) Tanck, about opening it to the community,” Knauf said.
“Six years after the hurricane, there’s still an awful lot of work to be done,” he said. “There are still houses sitting idle, or gutted and needing work.
Mike McBride returned from New Orleans last week, feeling like he did something positive.
“There’s more to life than a paycheck,” he said, after joining 23 other Irondequoit residents, all members of Christ the King, St. Cecilia’s, St. Margaret Mary, St. Thomas the Apostle and St. Salome’s churches, on a work trip to New Orleans last month.
Six years after Hurricane Katrina devastated much of New Orleans, McBride and the group saw, firsthand, the incredible amount of work that still needs to be done.
“It’s pretty dramatic. Some of these people have been out of their houses for six years and don’t know how they’ll get back in,” McBride said. “People were so appreciative of the work we did.”
McBride, who is a housing inspector for the city of Rochester and also volunteers as a Habitat for Humanity coordinator for homes city workers build, worked on a crew in New Orleans that jacked up a house, righted it, and made sure it was structurally sound.
“This was in what I’d call a marginal neighborhood, but the house was all the lady who owned it had ... and it had been just a shell — and crooked — for six years,” McBride said. “She was as thrilled as could be (at the work that was done). You would have thought it was an Extreme Makeover — but it wasn’t that extreme or lavish. We just made her house level and secure.”
He and the other volunteers battled 95 degree heat and 95 percent humidity during their work week, McBride said, and learned to drink a lot of water, even before they started working.
“You have to pace yourself; you’re not going to set any records,” McBride said.
He said he had wanted to go down to New Orleans five years ago, but it never worked out.
“When I saw this opportunity, I jumped at it,” McBride said.
The trip was coordinated by Irondequoit’s Ed Knauf, who was making his fourth trip to New Orleans.
He said 28 people from St. Margaret Mary, his church, went in 2009, and another 14 from St. Margaret Mary went in 2010.
“This year, since we’re now a combined Irondequoit parish, I spoke with (Pastor) Father (Norman) Tanck, about opening it to the community,” Knauf said.
“Six years after the hurricane, there’s still an awful lot of work to be done,” he said. “There are still houses sitting idle, or gutted and needing work.
This year’s contingent, many members of which had to use precious vacation time from their jobs, made the 1,350-mile trip in three large vans, stopping over each way at a youth camp in southern Kentucky.
“This year, we drove through tornado country,” Knauf said. “We could easily have stopped there (to help), too.”
Knauf estimates that there’s still five to 10 years more of work to be done to get everyone in New Orleans back into their homes.
The Archdiocese of New Orleans provided lodging — in a onetime school — food, and needed building supplies to the Irondequoit volunteers.
“We joked that it was a half-star hotel; it was a bit of a shock for those who have not been before,” Knauf said. “I call it living in solidarity with the poor for a week.”
The local volunteers were part of New Orleans’ Catholic Charities’ Operation Helping Hands, Knauf said, which has rebuilt over 150 homes and painted another 400 since Katrina, and works primarily with the elderly, disabled and low income individuals.
This year’s group was divided into three work crews. One, on which McBride worked, did framing and structural work, while two others did exterior painting.
The trip was also “a bit of a retreat,” Knauf said, with each day starting with prayer. After working from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, the group also had some time for sightseeing, from visiting a shrine in Alabama to having dinner in the French Quarter, taking a ferry boat ride, and stopping at a beach.
“We figured we could sleep when we got home,” said Knauf, who works as an accountant for Performance Technologies.
Despite the heat, the exhaustion and the accommodations, McBride, for one, is ready to go back.
“There’s definitely still work to be done ... and there’s a great sense of accomplishment,” he said. “This area was so unlike any other place in the country I’ve seen.”
