CELEBRATING OUR WORK IN NEW ORLEANS!

In partnership with The Massachusetts Conference, UCC and with the vision of Good Shepherd UCC in Metairie LA we have:

• Sorted well over 20,000 pounds of books to be given to children and donated to area schools.
• Bagged thousands of stuffed animals, which bring comfort to children who had none.
• Created, carried to Good Shepherd and organized for delivery literally hundreds of prayer shawls, handmade quilts and handmade blankets, which are given to church members and to community members.
• Carried down more than 40 musical instruments to Orleans Parish High Schools to help reestablish their music programs. (A first large donation has been followed by a continuing stream of smaller ones.)

Our participants from MA (including construction workers, teachers, social workers.) have:

• Left thousands of dollars of gift certificates for Home Depot, Lowes, Target, and Walgreens. These have been used for local individuals who are rebuilding their homes.
• Given tens of thousands of dollars to help rebuild - UCC churches and individual homes, to a crab fisherman for buying the traps he needed to begin to fish again, to schools for classroom supplies - library materials - sports equipment, and musical instruments.
• Labored on 3 churches and more than 30 houses.
• Been present to teachers and pupils, including reading to students and giving one-on-one lesson assistance.
• Created curriculum-based road shows of theater and music and facilitated class-attended learning centers of geography, astronomy, math and science.
• Helped dozens of people fill out Medicare D forms and saved them literally thousands of dollars that they were paying for prescription medications.
• AND we have begun to train volunteers to travel to New Orleans to lead educational forums on Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR). This is training that we hope will begin to assist folks coping with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome kinds of symptoms.

So because you (the United Church of Christ from Massachusetts) were there.

• When a dying man could no longer continue the renovation of his house, we were there to continue his work.
• When an elderly black woman, on many mood sustaining drugs, needed help to repair her house so she could rent it and afford to go to a retirement community, we were there (just before we left her, she rewarded us with a professional quality performance of one of her favorite hymns).
• A grandmother in St. Bernard Parish can bring her high school aged granddaughter home because 3 different teams have helped her to rebuild her home.
• A FEMA employee, volunteering from MA, was able to help a butcher, just returning from his evacuation to Texas. He discovered that his old job wanted him so much that they would adapt his work hours to the bus schedule.
• A social worker was able to help 7 folks with Medicare D forms - those 7 people saved over $22,000.
• We were able to hold a "comfort and joy" party in an elementary school, where a small girl smiled shyly and approached me to say "thank you" for books and a stuffed animal we gave her.
• A teacher wrote on an evaluation that having a teacher-in-residence from MA was like attending a great continuing education experience, while never having to leave her classroom or make a payment!
• Two 3 rd grade boys asked if they could PLEASE stay in from Physical Education to do more of the Road Show's learning centers on nutrition.