Amazing Progress Achieved
Through Three Weeks of ‘Mission to Mississippi’
All Eight Houses Framed, Roofed in Waveland, MS
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NOV. 05, 2007 – WAYLAND, MA – Eight new homes in Waveland, MS are truly starting to take shape (and color) as “Mission to Mississippi” enters week four. The unprecedented home building project by Wayland to Waveland Hurricane Katrina Relief and its cadre of eight home builders is right on schedule.
Framing and roofing is completed, windows and doors are installed and siding is up on the four homes on Combel Street. The two homes on Maple Street have roofs on, decks on and siding started. At the two Taranto Street homes, roofs are on, and siding will be done during week four which starts Tuesday.
The progress can be seen live right here... click here to see lilve video feeds from all three work sites.
The project is going exactly as planned with full professional crews, mostly cooperative weather and excellent support from locals and future homeowners. Mission to Mississippi leader builder Ken Vona was in Waveland for a week and returned pleased with the progress, and bubbling with renewed enthusiasm over the impact the project is having both on Waveland and on the Massachusetts workers participating. Both he and Wayland builder Peter Bachman (who directed last year’s projects) reflected at Friday’s Steering Committee meeting.
“We’re really making a huge difference for the people who will receive these homes,” said Vona. “These people are in survival mode. They’re struggling to keep food on the table, never mind thinking about building a home and paying for homeowners insurance.”
Vona and other committee members met with Kathy Pinn (read recent letter from Kathy), a woman who retired to Waveland shortly before Katrina and set up a small business in the heart of the city’s lively oceanside center. Wayland to Waveland has known her from the get-go as she became a special assistant to Mayor Tommy Longo and worked very hard for over a year to help the city recover. She’s now focused on rebuilding her business, but is an accurate barometer of what’s happening to people there. She will be visiting Wayland in the coming weeks.
Vona visited with the Mayor to see if his construction teams could help him in his ongoing effort to get back to some form of normalcy for his family. He has a large family living in a FEMA trailer, he’s endured a tough and bitter election, has had double knee surgery and has shouldered the mantle of leadership trying to keep spirits up.
As Mayor Longo told people here in September during the kickoff press conference, one of the big issues facing people is mental health – dealilng with depression, and stress. The entire region is suffering with a form of post-traumatic stress disorder – trying to function and be optimistic while wheels of relief turn so slowly.
This is clearly evident in recent letters to the Wayland to Waveland committee from the future owners of the eight homes being built:
Rose Luciano, who worked for the Sherrif’s Department before Katrina, writes that Katrina “took with it my life as I knew it… it took my home, my car, my job and every personal possession I had ever owned.
“I was grateful that my daughter and family as well as I survived this storm at all… I have, since then, learned and experienced a true sense of poverty. I never once would have thought that I would be homeless. I never thought that my family and I would endure the sadness of loss to such a great degree.
“When I was informed that my daughter and I had been selected by Wayland to Waveland to have a home built – I cried. When I go out to where the homes that are being built by this organization, I still struggle to fight back the tears, because this crisis of being homeless will soon end for my daughter and me.”
Also writing to the committee is Destiny Tullos, a young, single mother who lost her father only months after Katrina. “My days, weeks, year and now the rest of my life has been brightened by the compassion and generosity of not only the people of Boston, but the people of America as well. When I received the phone call informing me that I was chosen to be one of the lucky (home) recipients, I was overwhelmed with joy. I am so deeply touched that people who have never met me before could be so caring and giving to me as if they have know me all of my life,” she said.
Their letters along with others are available on this Web site.
Other Wayland to Waveland committee members shared observations. Bachman reported, “the workers (many who are quite young) who have gone (to Waveland) – some have never flown or even left the state – are getting a real education about life outside New England, and are so excited to be a part of this. Many want to go back again,” he said.
Steering Committee Member Cindy Lombardo also returning after leading the support team for the first two-plus weeks, reported on how different an experience it was to last year when there were few professionals and lots of volunteers. “Things are going much faster and times eight (homes).” She also reported that all the planning for logistical support are working very well, the hotel is clean and fully functioning, the meal service arranged with locals in Waveland is working wonderfully, the transportation and other services are just right.