Pompano Beach Presbyterians are Great.

Volunteers returned from First Presbyterian Church in Pompano Beach today. They came to Clewiston to work on Mr. P's house. They painted his house when they were here before, and today they are here laying floor tile, hoping to get him in his house before the holidays start. He is a great man, and has been a wonderful help and motivator to us and our volunteers.

CREW Employee Spotlight!

CREW is beginning a new segment of the Employee Spotlight, we are starting with one of the two employees who have worked for us the longest!

Laisa Vega was born in Fresno, California. She is a 24 year old Mexican female, who has lived in Clewiston Florida for half of her life here in Clewiston. She is the mother of one beautiful 3 year old girl, the wife of a Sugar Mill Worker, who she's been married to for 4 years. All of her wonderful and supportive family live locally here in Clewiston. Laisa is an active member of the Pentecostal Church of God in Clewiston and volunteers for church activities regularly. She speaks fluent Spanish and English. She stopped going to High School in her Senior year due to problems with summer school, but understanding the importance of education, just this week received her GED. Prior to working at CREW she worked odd temporary jobs, the most recent one she lost due to the store, Price Cutters, being destroyed by Hurricane Wilma. So how fitting she would come bless us with her skills. According to Laisa, CREW was her first "real job" and she has worked with us for 2 years since we began after Hurricane Wilma. She was one of the first employees hired under a Workforce Development Grant. Her salary is now paid for by grants from the United Methodist Committee on Relief and Volunteer Florida Foundation. She reports that her job at CREW has helped her a lot, it gave her self-confidence and helped teach her valuable life skills and she believes it helped her to pass her GED! We are so excited to hear she passed her test, she will be receiving her GED diploma in the mail, look for pictures of her with her diploma here!

Tornado Touchdown in Escambia County

At 10:16 am cdt the National Weather Service Doppler Radar and storm spotters were tracking a large and extremely dangerous tornado. This tornado was located near downtown Pensacola moving northeast at 15 mph.
A tornado warning remains in effect until 10:45 am cdt for south central Santa Rosa and southeastern Escambia counties. Other locations in the warning include but are not limited to Brent, east Pensacola Heights, Pensacola Regional Airport, Ferry Pass, Pace, Milton and Bagdad. This is an extremely dangerous and life threatening situation. This storm is capable of producing strong to violent tornadoes. If you are in the path of this tornado...take cover immediately!
STATE ACTIONS
• The State Emergency Operations Center is currently at a Level 3
• Region 2 Coordinator is en route to Escambia County to support local operations
• Operations and Plans Sections staff are monitoring the current situation and providing updates as needed

September Monthly Report

September was a good month. We have had one group of volunteers this month from Cape Coral. Grace Ministries UMC sent 2 volunteers to work on September 1, 2007. This group completed work on Oscar’s home. They hung paneling and finished the repairs to the ceiling. This group will be returning October 6, 2007. They have been coming about one day a month for quite some time. The total number of volunteers’ hours; 8. Total In Kind donation; $148.00.

As of September 30th in Hendry County 228 cases have been assigned to case managers who have updated recovery plans in 85 of these cases or are in the process of completion. In Glades County, 10 cases have been assigned to case managers and 10 of these have updated recovery plans completed or in the process of completion. In September 28 cases have been closed in Hendry County. With all clients needs being met or clients refusal of services. 6 cases in Glades County are closed with all clients’ needs being met or client’s refusal of services. To date there are 0 unassigned cases. This department currently has 3 full time and 2 half time case managers that are reviewing case information. Case managers are updating the needs of approximately 5 clients a day. 1 case manager who is reviewing and completing Means to Recovery Applications, writing reports and tracking our FEMA grant funds. The partnership between Means to Recovery (Red Cross) has been a slow process and we have currently received approval of funding for 15 clients and received actual checks to pay vendors for 6 of those clients. One of our USDA referral clients is close to receiving her mobile home after a year of work with USDA and CREW. For those clients that are not able to get out to our CREW office in Clewiston, we are set up in our Labelle office, every second Tuesday of each month and the Moore Haven office, every Tuesday from the hours of 9-12.

Our new office space is meeting all of our needs and is a blessing for the added space. 2 We are currently in need of a shredder that can handle the amount of shredding necessary to keep our clients information confidential.


During the month of September the Construction Coordinator, completed four reassessments, three new assessments, and, worked on nine different invoices, two in Glades County, and the rest in Hendry Country. Volunteers were not available during this month, so we used this time to address several ongoing problems we have been having in these areas: permitting and engineering, inventory, and material logistics. In the permitting area we have started a filing system for material specification worksheets, that will be available to clients seeking permits. Building and zoning from Counties and Cities were contacted and met with to facilitate more effective procedures in these areas. Our current inventory groups, tools and materials into one inventory, this creates problems because tools are hopefully long term items and materials come in and go out much more rapidly. To simplify we are creating two separate inventories for these areas. In addressing the material logistics problem, Jim White, of 1294 Davidson Rd. has agreed to allow us to use his large three-car garage area to gather and stage materials for upcoming jobs and for storing leftover materials from jobs completed. Kristy Seiler, for John Del La Cruz, donated another donation of shell rock for a mobile home pad. The approximate value of these donations was: $450.00.

In working with The Empowerment Alliance of South West Florida, we have provided 40 clients with credit counseling and budget planning. We conducted one Home Buyer Education Workshops in Clewiston, Labelle, and Immokalee. We worked on a fundraiser and attended the Housing Coalition as well. Our staff representative is working on attending core curriculum classes to get certified through the Florida Housing Coalition.

For the FEMA Close out project, all families listed on FEMA close out grant with open cases are currently in the CAN system. Assistance through this grant will be used to help families reach the long-term recovery goal of permanent housing solutions. In most cases, this involves the purchase, tie down, set up, permitting and connecting of mobile homes bought through FEMA’s modified and direct sales programs. Services provided to families this month required licensed contractors. Therefore, no volunteer services were used. In total C.R.E.W. has utilized 14 volunteers working a cumulative total of 70 hours during this project. In addition to the funding received from The Volunteer Florida Foundation C.R.E.W. receives funding from United Way of Lee, Hendry, and Glades Counties; UMCOR; PDA; and the Empowerment Alliance of Southwest Florida that assist with paying salaries to C.R.E.W. employees. C.R.E.W. has started to receive funding from The American Red Cross’s Means to Recovery Fund. During the month of September, C.R.E.W. received funding in the amount of $70,310.38 to assist with the cost of fully connecting client’s mobile homes. (This brings total funding received from American Red Cross to $126,867). It is important to note that funding received from American Red Cross is received as checks made directly to service providers and professional vendors and is considered in kind donations. At no time is this money deposited into C.R.E.W. accounts. Additionally, C.R.E.W. has used money received from another contract through the Volunteer Florida Foundation to assist four other families with total set up and connections of there newly purchased trailers. The amount used to help the afore mentioned families totals $69,00. Finally, the City of Clewiston has approved funding to assist residence living on non-conforming mobile home parks inside the city limits. As per the minutes of the April City Council meeting, the city has set aside $30,000 to be distributed on a case-by-case basis to these families. C.R.E.W. is in the process of writing a proposal for individual families and presenting it to the city. It is planned that this proposal will be presented by September 12, 2007. Links to the Volunteer Florida Foundation are posted on both our blog spot: huricanerecovery.blogspot.com and our website: home.earthlink.net~hurricanerecovery FEMA provided C.R.E.W. with a total of 65 clients who were in need of services. Additionally, the City of Clewiston also named over 20 families living on non-conforming lots inside the city limits that may be in need of services. The later 20 families may still be in need of services even though they are considered “closed cases” by FEMA. During the month of August, one family has been assisted with rental assistance and is waiting on the permitting process to be complete before they can move into their newly purchased mobile home. Eighteen families are in the process of obtaining permits to set up their mobile homes or certificates of occupancy for their mobile homes. However, in Hendry County it is taking over one to two months to receive a permit and approximately a week in some cases to schedule final inspection. Thus, even though funding has been secured and services have been ordered, families are still waiting on approvals through the county/city before completing their recovery plans. On family has had their trailer completely set up, but is waiting on the air conditioning contractor to complete services before they can reach a permanent housing solution. Because of the lack of and high demand of service providers in Hendry County, it has taken a while for this family to be scheduled with the service provider. Another family will be closed the middle of September; however, numerous complication arose with achieving a final Certificate of Occupancy from the City of Clewiston. These complications ranged from finding the sewer line to completing a “tie in survey” which was a new requirement that was only brought to C.R.E.W’s attention when the final inspection was called. These complications have added an additional month to the family reaching there permanent housing solution. One family’s case was closed due to non-compliance and failure to respond to a final notice. Of the clients working with C.R.E.W. nineteen are on course for the month in implementing their revised exit plan. It is anticipated that these nineteen families will be able to reach their goal of a permanent housing solution with in the next month and half given that the permitting process goes smoothly. The remaining families working with C.R.E.W. are in the process of bringing in required documentation needed to move their Means to Recovery application forward. These families have been notified and are aware of what is needed to proceed. The majority of the remaining families are residing in a non conforming trailer park in the City of Clewiston. C.R.E.W. caseworkers have contacted these families in order to notify them of the City deadline for removing trailers off of non conforming lots. Along with the request for case by case funding that C.R.E.W. is presenting with the family, C.R.E.W. is working with the City to help develop communication and other forms of assistance that may be available to these families. C.R.E.W. has two families awaiting approval from the American Red Cross Means to Recovery Program. Another six families will be presented to our local American Red Cross Representative with in the next two weeks. These families have been slow to turn in the paperwork needed to complete application. The exact date that these applications will be turned in will be dependant upon the date that the Red Cross Representative will be able to visit C.R.E.W.’s office. Hendry County’s Director of Building and Zoning who had only been working for the past few months resigned. It is unknown how the change in the administration will affect the permitting process. C.R.E.W. speaks with FEMA representative Deanna Poland on a daily basis to exchange updated information. Moreover, the FEMA field worker, Tracy, has also met with C.R.E.W. he has contact information relating to which service contractors are working with which clients. He is working closely with C.R.E.W. and contractors to arrange logistics of moving and setting up trailers. C.R.E.W. can always use money to assist with the administrative cost of running the office. C.R.E.W. has volunteers willing to rebuild a new home for clients who own their own land. Although families in need and labor have been identified for at least three rebuilds, the families are in need of building supplies. The supplies are estimated to be $50, 000 to complete one rebuild.

In the month of September the mitigation program has received a great response.
We received a total 22 new applicants for mitigation, 17 have been enter into the Hurricane Relief Database and 5 are on hold for completion of paperwork. A total of 9 inspection reports have been received and 1 of those marked ineligible for income reasons. There are now 15 clients certified to receive mitigation. There are 4 clients awaiting contractor estimates. 3 homes are in progress with Lifestyle Shutters (Norman Smith, Henderson Trammell and Joseph Mitchell). 8 homes are in progress with Glades Roofing (Shauntee Parnell, Mary Williams, Helena Reid, Wilhelmenia Cobb, Mae Francis Hill, Llewelyn Brissett, John Samples and Patricia Smalls). The completion date for the above home owners is set for October 15, 2007. An initial deposit of $3460.00 has been made to lifestyle Shutters for 3 homes and $9201.73 to Glades Roofing for the other 8 homes. The total cost of these projects will be $28830.46. There are a total of 62 Clients entered in the Hurricane Relief Database and 5 on hold awaiting completion of clients paperwork. There has been advertisement by radio (WAFC FM @ 99.5) and newspaper (Clewiston News) as well as flyers. This will help in our effort to gather more clients for mitigation. An appointment has been set to advertise on the Spanish radio station (Radiofiesta @ 590 AM) to reach a broader clientele. C.R.E.W. will also be meeting with S.H.I.P. of Hendry and Glades counties to inquire about mitigating their homes.

Our Executive Director serves as a Board Member for the Florida VOAD and is on their case management committee, participating in a quarterly meeting in St. Petersburg this month, and weekly phone conferences for the case management committee. She also met with Frank Perez from the Florida Equal Justice Center who came to our offices to see if he could assist us in any way in working with FEMA or getting those in FEMA trailers the assistance they need. She also serves as a member on the local Homeless Coalition Board and attended meetings with them this month as well. This month also saw a two-day monitoring from Volunteer Florida Foundation in which we made some paperwork changes. Our blog site is being regularly (often daily) updated, and celebrated National First Responders Day this month. Grant writing and searching for new available grants is also a daily task for our Executive Director.

Our finances as of September 30th are as follows. There is $90,122.15 in our account, including all grant funds. This includes the following accounts.

1. CRWRC spent $942.90 this month.
2. VFF-Mitigation grant spent $19,999.21 for a balance of $14,298.33.
3. VFF-FEMA Close out grant has balance of -$2,242.48.
4. VFF-FEMA Private funds has balance of -$2,713.09
5. UMCOR funds has balance of $16,196.51.
6. PDA funds has balance of -$3,156.66

Beymer Memorial Methodist Church Rocks!

We received a nice note from Rev. Sharon Bates at Beymer Memorial Methoidst Church with these pictures of their trip, including a picutre when they presented CREW with a gift of $500 to help victims of Hurricane Wilma.


She writes: "Thanks for helping us have a rewarding mission trip to Clewiston October 10-13. We were very impressed with your cooperation and communication. Your cheerful and positive attitudes and enormous supply of patience with us were most appreciated by all in our group. Chuck gave us great instructions on how to do some new skills that we can now add to our list!! The First United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian churches are to be complimented> for their hospitality to us. The county showers were always clean and had plenty of warm water to help us clean up and rejuvenate! We hope we can work together again! I will try to send more pictures as we gather them from the other cameras!! In His Peace, Sharon Bates Beymer Memorial United Methodist Church Winter Haven, Florida "

This volunteer group was wonderful. In addition to all their hard labor, they gave the First United Methodist Church a monetary gift for hosting them one night for dinner and letting them sleep on the hard floors in their Sunday School rooms. They even had to drive to the local Marina to find a place to shower. They also provided Community Presbyterian Church with a monetary gift for hosting them one night for dinner as well. How blessed our community was to have them visit!

CREW Mitigates homes on You Tube

CREW continues to Mitigate homes, to help low income families in Hendry and Glades Counties prepare for future storms. Workers came and will be shuttering eleven homes in the next couple weeks. More are being certified and inspected everyday.

Check out this video: CREW shutters low income homes for rural residents.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkBAEsMfCs4

FEMA prepares for Lake O problems

FEMA Shifts, Draws Own Disaster PlansFriday,
October 12, 2007 1:11 AM EDT
The Associated PressBy SCOTT LINDLAW Associated Press Writer

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — The Federal Emergency Management Agency is quietly drawing up plans for a handful of disasters: devastating earthquakes beneath San Francisco and St. Louis and catastrophic storms in South Florida and Hawaii, FEMA's chief said Thursday.

In a departure from its traditional expectation that states develop such responses, the agency is forming "base plans" for responding to specific calamities, FEMA Administrator R. David Paulison said in an interview Thursday with The Associated Press.

FEMA officials expect to finish plans for a massive Bay Area quake by the end of the year and are at work on another response blueprint for a large quake on the New Madrid fault, which runs from southern Illinois to northeastern Arkansas and lurks beneath St. Louis, Paulison said.

FEMA also is preparing for a Category 5 hurricane in the Miami area and has nearly completed response guidelines for a failure of the 143-mile dike around Lake Okeechobee, northwest of Miami, he said. About 45,000 people live in flood-prone areas around the lake.

Also, the agency recently began assembling response plans for a catastrophic hurricane in Hawaii, Paulison said.Last year, Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer expressed dismay that the federal government did not have a plan to respond to a catastrophic earthquake in their home state of California.

In March 2006, Paulison's boss, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, called those concerns unwarranted and said federal officials were fulfilling their duties by meeting with state emergency management planners and reviewing their plans.

"They've got to write it," Chertoff said then of the state's primary role in a response plan. Yet by late last year, FEMA's regional offices — not Washington headquarters — were well into the writing of some of the planning documents, a process that Paulison said began before Boxer and Feinstein aired their objections.

"We recognize that we've got to do catastrophic planning," Paulison said in Thursday's interview at FEMA's regional headquarters. A spokesman for Chertoff did not immediately return an after-hours call for comment.
The federal government spent $5 million to develop the Florida plans, about $17 million for the New Madrid plan, $1.5 million for Hawaii and $1 million for northern California.

Next year, FEMA hopes to obtain additional funding to write another plan for an earthquake catastrophe in Southern California, said Nancy Ward, the administrator for the FEMA region that includes California, Arizona, Nevada, Guam, Hawaii and other Pacific islands.

FEMA has adopted a more aggressive stance toward disasters since Hurricane Katrina devastated parts of the Southeast in 2005. Paulison called it a "culture change" at FEMA. Paulison did not mention a base plan for the New Orleans area, but FEMA officials said the agency worked closely with state and local authorities to complete a New Orleans-area disaster plan. Paulison said the old model of waiting for states to plead for federal help was a recipe for "sequential failure." "We've got to go in as partners. We've got to stand side by side," he said. "We're going to move in early, we're not going to wait for the state to ask for things before we start moving them, we're going to anticipate what the needs are, and then when they ask for them, we're going to be there," he said. "The worst that can happen is they don't need them."

Methodist Volunteers Help Local Residents

Beymer Memorial United Methodist Church volunteers worked all day Wednesday, returned to the local Clewiston First United Church (where they are sleeping in Sunday School rooms, and traveling to marina for showers) for dinner and fellowship, where they presented the local Church with a monetary gift for hosting them. They worked again all day Thursday, trying to help those still suffering the effects of homes destroyed by Hurricane Wilma. Thursday night, Community Presbyterian Church in Clewiston hosted them for dinner and fellowship as well.

CREW Mitigates more homes!

CREW continues to Mitigate homes, to help low income families in Hendry and Glades Counties prepare for future storms. Workers came today and began work on two homes and will be shuttering eleven homes in the next couple weeks. More are being certified and inspected everyday.

Help CREW simply by Shopping

Tell-a-Friend about iGive.com!More Supporters Mean More Donations for CREW. Click here to tell a friend about iGive.com now! During our Surfathon, you and your friends can visit online stores through iGive.com for more chances to win a $1000 donation! Click here to learn more about the Surfathon. We'll also donate an extra $5 to your friend's favorite charity when they make their first purchase! Send them your personalized Tell-a-Friend link (included below) and CREW will be pre-selected as the cause to support! It can mean thousands for your cause. $5 bonus donation rules: Referred friends must join through your personalized Tell-a-Friend link:

http://www.iGive.com/html/refer.cfm?memberid=324218&causeid=35958

Referred friends must shop through iGive within 45 days of joining.The $5 bonus donation will appear in your friend's iGive.com account.

Volunteers from

Volunteers from Beymer Memorial Church in Winter Haven, Florida arrived in Clewiston tonight. They came to volunteer at CREW repairing homes destroyed by Hurricane Wilma. They began settling in tonight in their rooms (sleeping on pallets on the floor) at the First United Methodist Church in Clewiston. Pastor John, from FUMC in Clewiston was there to greet them and make them feel welcome along with Renee Mergott, our Volunteer Coordinator. In addition to volunteering, they also presented the Executive Director of CREW with a donation check of $500.00. Praise God for such wonderful volunteers, keep posted for pictures of the work they are doing!

CREW Update

CREW had it's monthly board meeting this afternoon and was excited to have guests from UMCOR, Volunteer Florida Foundation, and the Glades County Commissioners. Issues were reviewed, and plans made for our Unmet Needs meeting next month. Scaling down on employees, as our client numbers are decreasing was discussed, and new funding opportunities were also discussed, plans for continuing CREW to help with disaster preparedness, and smaller disasters such as fires were also discussed.

Friends at DNN

Thanks to our friends at DNN, (and former volunteer Heather!) we are getting more publicity about our need for funds for a rebuild. We also may have raised about the half the funds needed, I will know more next week! Please keep this family and our ability to raise funds in your hearts and minds!

Publix and United Way

You know, I truly love Publix grocery stores, and I feel the need to tell you about my experience shopping there on my way home from a training yesterday. We unfortunately have no Publix anywhere in our county. In fact the choices for grocery shopping in Clewiston are pitiful, so on my way home from Sarasota, I stopped at the Publix store on highway 80 headed home to Clewiston.

From the moment I walked in the store I was blown away. Every single employee who passed me, looked me directly in the eye and asked me how I was doing, and offered to help me find anything I might need. This is not standard customer service in a world that is allowing customer service to fall very short. The store itself was spotless and sparkling clean, again a think unusual for Clewiston. Then, there was the freshness of the produce, unlike last week, the produce I bought in local stores went bad in a day. AND THE CHOICES!!!! The choices for food, produce, meats, etc. is limited locally, here the choices were endless. At the seafood shop I overhead a customer ask for the rare thing they did not have fresh, the assistant called every Publix Store in the vicinity, gave the customer directions to the store, and had the store hold the item till the customer got there. Meanwhile, staff continued to greet me pleasantly and offer assistance.

As I went through the store I discovered their Green Wise Market, how cool! These days, more and more people are looking for naturally delicious and environmentally friendly products. The Publix GreenWise Market items offers excellent quality and value. Organic items are raised without added growth hormones or synthetic antibiotics, steroids, pesticides, or fertilizers and are all-natural with no GMOs (genetically modified organisms). They offer, minimally processed, all-natural items with no artificial colors, flavor, preservatives or sweeteners. The earth-friendly products are produced in such a way to minimize any negative impact on the environment.

And of course, being the Good Corporate citizens they are, I can get Upromise Points by shopping there, and free oral anitbiotics from the pharmacy. Again, all with EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE.

So it is finally check out time, the check out woman was so pleasant, chatted with me, and as the bagger had left checked my groceries and bagged them, refusing to let me help. A manager witnessed this came and began bagging apologizing profusely not only to me but to the check out girl. Then the manager offered to take my groceries to the car, I told him (being the feminist I am) that it was truly not necessary. He insisted. He took the cart to my car, unloaded the groceries, making sure I put the cold stuff up front near the AC knowing I had a long drive and taking care to put eggs and bread where they could not be damaged. Again, I was shocked, so I had to bring up the fact that I worked for United Way, he proudly puffed up and told me how much the store had done, I smiled and told him I was well aware of it and mentioned that Publix funds had helped incredibly in our rural Hendry and Glades Counties and shared the wonderful work their funds had allowed us to achieve. I told him the biggest thing the company could do for us now, was to please open a store in Clewiston! He proudly again told me they are opening 30 new stores next year.

The store I went to was: The Shops at Verandah 11851 Palm Beach Blvd Fort Myers, FL 33905-5912

Cool, lets hope one is in Clewiston and God Bless Publix!

FEMA

I attended a Train the Trainer Training today put on by Ken Salitsky, who is our FEMA VAL for Region 4. I met him for the first time in New Orleans at a National VOAD meeting, and was very impressed. He continues to impress me, unlike most Government employees, he truly acts from his heart and cares about people, and is in the business of making life better for people. It was cool because 12 counties from Florida had representatives there. This training is designed to demystify the process of getting help from various Government sources after a disaster.

The training was extremely helpful, but more than that, it struck a cord. You know the social worker in me can not be quiet for long. Everyone, loves to blame FEMA and the Government when their life goes bad, but it often goes bad for decisions made by those that have nothing to do with the Government. I have an urge to help others all the time and love to reach my hand out to help, it is what I believe I was called to do, however, I expect them to reach back. I will work my but off to help someone, but I expect them to do all they are able to help themselves. The Government does not owe us crap. We are supposed to take care of ourselves, and hopefully, if we are good citizens, pay our taxes and help those in need when we can, then we need help, help will be provided. It is a very basic concept, but seems foreign to many.

FEMA takes a lot of heat, and Heaven knows they have angered me on occasion, but ultimately, our country was founded on the concept that we could pull ourselves up by our boot straps and help ourselves, when someone is truly unable, others that have and can should step in. I say lets thank FEMA for what they do, being thank full we are not on our own, and if you want them to help more, join a church, their mission is to help you!

In any case as a CREW and United Way Of Lee Hendry and Glades employee I am qualified to train volunteers and others in helping disaster victims fill out the forms necessary for them to receive Government Assistance.

Money needed to rebuild home!

Here is a picture of our first rebuild, we want to do another!

CREW wants to rebuild a home for Pamela. Pamela is a 53 year old Florida born Caucasian woman who works for Southern Gardens and has for many years. She also cleans offices for extra money. In addition to working two jobs, she finds time to volunteer, so she can help others. After Hurricane Wilma, Pamela’s home was severely damaged. The winds were so strong that they picked up Pamela’s mobile home and twisted it. Pamela who was inside of the mobile home during the storm began to screw the walls back together as they were ripping apart. After the hurricane had passed she was told to leave but had no where to go. She was unable to go to a shelter because she feared that her belongings that were left would be stolen. Pamela had insurance a few days prior to the storm but her insurance company cancelled due to no hand rails being on her porch right before the storm. Pamela did not have sufficient time to put the hand rails on before Wilma hit. She did receive $2,600.00 from FEMA and used to repair her water system and to sit the mobile home back on the blocks. Pamela is low- income and is unable to repair the mobile home. She also has numerous medical problems and the mold in the home is increasing the severity of her breathing problems. Pamela is living in the only room in her home that is livable, the living room. Pamela was forced to move all of her belongings into that room. She also must sleep, cook, and eat in the living room due to the fact that she does not have electricity in the other rooms of the home. All in all Pamela did not receive enough funds to repair her mobile home and now is living in a severely damaged home that is unsafe and un-repairable. Pamela says “All I want is my life back how it was before Hurricane Wilma”.

It is the Mission of C.R.E.W., Community Rebuilding Ecumenical Workforce, a caring network of Hendry and Glades counties’ civic, social services, faith-based groups, agencies, and organizations along with concerned individual and business, formed to address the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of the community in the restoration and rebuilding of their lives and homes in times of a natural or man-made disasters. Additionally, C.R.E.W. will provide collaborative leadership and advocacy in the discernment of the long term systemic needs for continuing to assist Pamela and her family with as much as we can, however we are extending a hand as asking for your organization’s assist regarding this project. We have found volunteers that want to build her a home, and we have found people willing to draw the plans, all we need now is the money. We believe it will cost about $50,000 to accomplish this, both in materials and to pay contractors for plumbing and electricity. We are pleading for assistance in raising these funds.

CREW on MySpace

Check out opportunites to volunteer with CREW on MySpace!

http://myspace.volunteermatch.org/results/opp_detail.jsp?oppid=351699

Grace Ministries United Methodist Church

Grace United Methodist Church continues to send us volunteers every month almost! You can read through the old blog entries and see lots more about them, they have been with us since we first started tarping roofs after the storm 2 years ago! Last month 2 volunteers came to work on September 1, 2007. They worked a total of 8 hours for an in kind donation of, $148.00. Note they do this on their day off, on their own time and spend time and money in gas driving to our rural area from Cape Coral in order to do this. This group work on Oscar’s home hanging paneling and finishing the repairs to the ceiling.

He and his wife Jackie and two children lived in a trailer in Hooker's Point when Hurricane Wilma hit and their roof, walls, ceilings, floors, doors, plumbing and electrical were all damaged. Oscar could not work because he was disabled after being shot in the leg and back during a robbery attempt.