March 7^th-9^th, 2007

 

On Wednesday TJ, Bob, Jarrad, Ariel, and I arrived at a house in Pass Christian, Mississippi that was previously being work on by about eight others from the Randy’s Rangers group.  As we arrived at the peaceful, isolated home placed in the middle of the Mississippi woods, we began to look around at the devastation that Hurricane Katrina had caused almost 18 months later.  We had time to look around the house that we were going to work on during the end of the week, and we were soon given the task by Larry to finish dry walling a bare, dusty living room.  I began to think that this task was nearly impossible to accomplish in less than three days.  Without hesitation, our group began to dry wall from 8-5 everyday for the next three days.  As Friday approached, Peggy the owner of the home came into the house and her face began to beam.  She couldn’t have been happier that her living room had walls up in it.  At that moment in time she didn’t think of the work that still needed to be done to her home, and she just enjoyed the sight of what we had accomplished.  After we packed up our tools for the last time at Peggy’s home and waited for Cookie to come pick us up, Peggy gave every single volunteer who had worked at her home that week a big hug and told us that we made a difference in helping rebuild her home.  She then told us she had one of her better days since the storm hit knowing that BonaResponds helped her get one step closer to moving back into her house.  The most valuable lesson I learned while I was on this trip was that there is no greater feeling than being part of a team to help others in need.

 

Joey Scotto