CREW teams with CRWRC to do great things!

We currently have CRWRC volunteers (more commonly know as the "Green Shirts") working, and they have been all week. They have done some wonderful things! If you want to find out more about this great organization you can check out their website by clicking this link!http://www.crcna.org/pages/crwrc.cfm

The Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC) is the relief and development arm of the Christian Reformed Church. It reaches out in God's name to people, both in North America and around the world, who are struggling with poverty, hunger, disaster, and injustice to help them find lasting ways to improve their lives.

Since they have been here they have completed a lot of work. The six volunteers have completed an entire roof repair with shingles and plywood, painting, replaced drywall, replaced flooring, and replaced ceilings for 3 different families here in Clewiston, all the result of damage from Hurricane Wilma. They have a larger group (22 total) here working as well with our neighbors in Western Palm Beach County who are really suffering and have even more needs than us still remaining from Hurricane Wilma. This great organization sent 22 volunteers here, they arrived a few weeks ago, and will remain in Belle Glade until early April. A local church is housing them and First United Methodist Church of Clewiston hosted them for dinner one night, their first week in town.

Below is our latest CRWRC report for the $50,000 they have given to support our work:
CRWRC specific accomplishments:

From August 1st till January 31st we have spent $15,579.58. As of the end of January, we have spent $22,028.54 of the first installment of $25,000.00. Our second installment of $25,000 we are planning to use on our rebuild which begins this month, in February. We have helped the following families.

T.F. is a black single Mom of five ranging in ages from seven to three, including a set of twins. She lost her home in Hurricane Wilma. She and her family moved about from friends to family while without a home for almost a year. She did not qualify for government assistance through SHIP and other programs as the trailer that was destroyed was in her father’s name. He is not in contact with his family. She was able to find a mobile home to purchase that she could afford, but she could not afford the demolishing of her trailer or the removal of the debris. CREW found volunteer youth group from Zion Lutheran Church in Colorado to complete the demolishing. We used CRWRC funds to pay $318.12 in dumping fees and to buy supplies. (We had used $650.01 previously of CRWRC funds as seen on first report on this home as well.) We used local churches to house and feed the volunteers.

L.M. is a Hispanic married man who lives with his wheel chair bound wife and their two teen age daughters and teen aged nephew. Their trailer was destroyed in Hurricane Wilma. We assisted them in applying for a direct sale of a FEMA mobile home for $500.00 which the family’s church paid for. However, they needed a wheel chair ramp installed and did not have funds for that. We found volunteers from a United Church of Christ church, First Parish of Westwood Massachusetts, who came and built a ramp for the family. We used CRWRC to pay for $1085.93 (and another $1095.02 from previous CRWRC report) in supplies to build the ramp and set up the trailer. We used local churches to house and feed the volunteers.

M.R. is a retired Mexican woman who lives with her retired husband in a trailer. They live off their social security and have limited funds. They had roof, interior and skirting damage to their home. The husband tried to fix what he could but was unable to fix most of it. We found volunteers from Miami Presbyterian and funding from United Church of Christ to repair the roof. CREW found volunteers a youth group from Zion Lutheran Church in Colorado to complete the skirting and do some interior repairs, materials were paid for by funds from Catholic Charities, as well as $400 from CRWRC. We used local churches to house and feed the volunteers.

F.R. is a Spanish speaking married elderly man, with multiple heath problems including diabetes, who lives with his wife, and they are raising their two granddaughters and live in an unsafe area, Montura Ranch Estates. They received $9,000 in insurance funds which they used to repair their roof and fence. However they still needed insulation replaced, and interior wall damage which volunteers from Zion Lutheran Church in Colorado, First Parish Westwood of Massachusetts, and New Harvest Church in Clewiston. We used $699.15 in funds from CRWRC to pay for the materials (This is in addition to $557.38 spent on materials from CRWRC also in last report.) We used local churches to house and feed the volunteers.

J.M. is a 41 year old married man who lives with his wife and their three young children aged 11, 4 and 16 months. They were hit by storms in 2004 and by Wilma in 2005. Also in 2005, he was diagnosed with terminal Cancer. They have struggled to get the repairs done. He did some of them himself before he became too sick to do them anymore. Volunteers from Grace Ministries in Cape Coral, FL, Conway United Methodist Church in Orlando, Miami Shores Presbyterian, New Harvest Church in Clewiston, Grace Lutheran Church in Indiana, Boca Raton Christian School from Florida, University of South Carolina, Conway United Methodist Church in Orlando, and First United Methodist Church from Port St. Lucie came, over a number of months repairing drywall, installing plywood on flooring in master bathroom. The NFL/United Way Partnership paid for $3,000 of these supplies. We used $607.91 in CRWRC funds for materials for what the above noted $3,000 did not cover. (This is in addition to the $1095.02 we spent on them in our last report). We used local churches to house and feed the volunteers.

L.P. is an elderly retired Jamaican Man whose trailer in Harlem was half way destroyed and unlivable, he has been living with friends for two years. He used $15000.00 in insurance money to make many repairs himself. Half of his home had to be completely repaired, the other half had interior and roof damage. In addition he needed electrical and plumbing work to be done to repair damage done to both systems by Hurricane Wilma. Volunteers from Grace United Methodist Church, Holy Cross Lutheran from Colorado; King of Glory Lutheran Church in Williamsburg VA, the “Pink Church” a Presbyterian Church in Pompano Beach, Florida, a Lutheran Church in Michigan, and All Saints Lutheran Church from Plantation Florida. The NFL/United Way Partnership paid $7075.98 for materials and Grace United Methodist Church donated $200.00. We used $487.30 of CRWRC funds in materials on this home as well as $197.20 of CWRC funds for permitting fees for his home as well. We used local churches to house and feed the volunteers.

L.W. is a single black woman who lives in Harlem. She was uninsured at the time of Hurricane Wilma. Luckily her home did not get too damaged. She used money from FEMA to repair some minor damages including furniture. She works, but is very low income. The area she lives in is high crime and Wilma blew down her fence. We found volunteers from St. Thomas United Methodist Church in Manassas, VA to repair her fence. We used $360.51 in materials to complete work, and $500 to pay for the boundary survey required from CRWRC. We used local churches to house and feed the volunteers.

P.B. is a single mom raising her two teen aged daughters. She received $4713.57 from her insurance company. She used most of this to repair her roof on main house, the remainder she used to buy shingles and siding for her shed that a group of volunteers from Grace Lutheran Church installed. We used money from the Rotary to hire contractors to replace her windows. $487.14 in materials from CRWRC funds were used to pay for the materials which two groups of volunteers (Memorial Methodist in Lake Placid Florida, and St. Thomas Methodist Church in Manassas, Virginia) used to remove debris, paint and replace drywall and replace siding on her home.

J.G. is a single black mother of two teenage boys and a younger daughter. They live in a home owned by the family for sometime, several of her aunts and uncles share ownership of the home but have allowed her to live their. For this reason, she had difficulty getting any kind of government assistance to repair the home as it was not in her name. Volunteers from CREW early in our history provided and installed a blue tarp for her destroyed roof, which had to be replaced again a year later as funding to replace roof was still not found. We could not use volunteers for this particular roof, because of permitting issues related to flat roofs. We found funding from The Empowerment Alliance to hire Bryant Roofing to repair her roof; they covered all but $733.00 of it, for which we used CWRC funds to pay off the balance.

R.C. is a 43 year old disabled man whose medical problems include multiple strokes, diabetes, emphysema and high blood pressure. He lives on his disability and has no other source of income. Hurricane Wilma destroyed his roof, two windows, front door, flooring, skirting, and half of his screen porch. His main concern was his constant companion, Marty, his Chihuahua. He was worried to death that his dog would fall through the holes in the floor. The Rotary has contributed $700 towards his case. Conway United Methodist Church from Orlando sent volunteers to work on his home. We spent $288.55 from CRWRC funds on dumping fees on his home and $445.00 on materials from CRWRC which the volunteers used to make the repairs.

M.G. is a single Hispanic mom of two teenage boys, who works as a nurse (mostly at night) and sleeps during the day. Her AC, roof, windows and doors were all destroyed by Hurricane Wilma. She received help from FEMA which she used to repair all but her air conditioning and windows. The Rotary paid for the materials used to replace windows. We used $2,600.00 of CRWRC funds to pay Robert S. Hunton & Company, Inc. to replace the air conditioners, as we could not find qualified volunteers to do this.

B.G. is a single disabled black mom of her young son and daughter who lives with them and an elderly disabled friend. Hurricane Wilma did damage to her roof, bedroom ceiling, skirting and kitchen. Her insurance covered about $6000 worth of the damages which she used to repair the roof; we used $1701.09 of CRWRC funds to cover the remaining bill from R & R Roofing. Her skirting and ceiling were repaired by Beymer Memorial United Methodist Church from Winter Haven for which we used $356.00 of CRWRC funds to buy materials.

E.B. is a widowed white disabled elderly woman who lives alone and has difficulty walking. She and her husband are members of the local VFW, and they provide her with a lot of emotional support to this day. We used CRWRC funds of $2234.30 to buy materials for a group of Volunteers from St. Thomas United Methodist Church in Manassas, VA to repair her roof. We are still looking for more volunteers to complete interior work. We are also using Volunteer Florida Foundation grant funds to pay for hurricane shutters to be installed on her home.

G.C. is a Spanish only speaking Hispanic severely disabled single mom with heart problems who lives with her teenaged son in Montura, a remote high crime area outside of Clewiston. We spent $600.39 of CRWRC funds in materials for volunteers to repair her skirting, roof and siding who will be coming in February.

P.A. is a single black low income working mother with a severely disabled autistic handicapped adult son who receives a disability check. While awaiting the sale and set up of a FEMA trailer, CREW used grant funds from Volunteer Florida Foundation ($1600) to pay the first two months of her rent, she went into default for the second two months before we were finally able to get her home permitted. She has yet to pay the landlord, who is a friend of CREW’s. The home was moved and set up using Red Cross Means to Recovery Funds ($8,500). However, the funds did not pay for the shell rock needed in order for the trailer to pass inspection, and thus the family was not allowed to move in. We used $200 of CRWRC money to complete this, and the family has since moved in.

E.W. is a black working low income single mom of three teenage boys who live in Harlem. Hurricane Wilma tore off the shingles on her roof, and left interior damage. Her children all attend Harlem Academy where she works. She fixed the majority of the interior work her self. Volunteers from Southwest VIM team in Baltimore, MD came in February and the NFL/United Way partnership paid their expenses and most of the materials needed for their repairs (at the cost of $3000.00). We used $78.28 of CRWRC funds to pay the remaining costs. This group tore off shingles and replaced felt paper and shingles on the roof. Under this same NFL/United Way partnership grant (at the cost of $2989.07), volunteers from St. Thomas United Methodist Church in Manassas, Virginia came in March and did some repairs to the interior of the home.

P.H. is a 53 year old Caucasian working woman who lives alone in a very rural high crime area called Montura. She has worked for Southern Gardens for many years, and also does some office cleaning on the side for extra money. In addition to working her two jobs, she often volunteers for local non-profits. Hurricane Wilma picked up her trailer and twisted it. She was inside the home at the time and began screwing the walls back together as they were ripping apart. She was told to leave her home as it was condemned, but she refused fearing her belongings would be stolen if she did. Her insurance company cancelled her insurance a few days prior to the storm because she did not have hand rails on her porch. She received $2600.00 from FEMA which she used to repair her water system and sit her mobile home back on its blocks. She has moved into the living room, the only livable room left. She applied but was denied assistance from USDA rural development and SHIP. We are currently working on building her wood frame house, and have volunteers to do the work and are working on raising the money for this rebuild. We have used $75.00 of CRWRC funds to pay for demolition permit fee on this home and $956.13 of UMCOR funds on this home to pay for boundary surveys, portable restrooms and pods for the volunteers coming later this month. We will need approximately $50,000 to rebuild this home, UMCOR has committed $5,000 and we are planning most of the remaining CRWRC funds towards this home. We already have three skilled volunteer groups scheduled to work on this home in the next two months.

We also used $1124.71 of the money from CRWRC for administrative costs as follows: $11.98 for office supplies in September,
$13.87 for mileage for in October,
$13.06 for office supplies and tools in November,
$39.98 for office supplies in November,
$24.69 in August, $177.61 in October, $1.31 in January for postage,
$192.82 in October, $93.53 in November, $55.97 in January, towards our telephone bill, $193.92 in October, $55.97 in January for our cell phone
$250.00 in December for our monthly accounting bill

Also, please note that on our previous report, I had reported $11,000 in hauling and dumping fees when it was actually $1,100.00 for M.S. thus, we had reported previously spending $16,348.96, when in actuality we had spent only $6448.96.

About $3000 of the remaining money has been earmarked in our unmet needs meeting for jobs that we have not had volunteers to complete yet, or are awaiting permits. In addition, we are hoping to save the remainder of these funds for our rebuild which begins with a volunteer group that is coming at the end of February.