SEPTEMBER MONTHLY REPORT
CREW continues it’s struggle with a skeleton CREW and limited funding to help the area’s remaining Hurricane Wilma and Tropical Storm Fay victims. Our activities in September are listed below.
We are still helping our families surviving Hurricane Wilma, the most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin. We also continue to help families affected by Tropical Storm Fay, the 6th named storm of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season which hit our area August 19th. In our area (Hendry, Glades and Okeechobee Counties), Fay caused massive flooding, two deaths in Moorehaven, lots of flooding and wind damage. Roofs were torn apart and homes flooded.
We have successfully helped all of our Tropical Storm Ernesto families.
We are no longer taking applications for cases from these storms, and God willing we will be able to close our current cases soon and will have no more storms in our area to assist with.
Since May, 2006 to the end of September 2009, we have had 106 volunteer groups and 328 individual volunteers who have donated 26,458.50 hours for a cumulative in kind donation of $529,170.00. These groups have also donated supplies and cash for a cumulative total of $7,814.00. The local churches and businesses have also donated space and meals to these volunteers for a cumulative total of $426,275.00. We have also been donated storage space for a total in kind donation for the year of $1,420.00.
On September 25, 2009, East Lake United Methodist Church returned with 5 volunteers. They worked in Labelle, installing some underlay for the floor and vinyl tile. They worked for a cumulative total of 50 hours for an in-kind donation of $1000. The group arrived on Friday night and spent the night at the First United Methodist Church for the night. They have been coming regularly to help us for years and will be back in October.
We held an LTRO meeting this month which included 5 volunteers and was held in space graciously donated by Hendry Regional Medical Center who also donated meals for the group. Our next meeting will be in November 19th @ 12:30.
We have been donated space for storing all of our equipment by Sharon Harris in Moore Haven. This donation was started in January and the total in kind donation equals $1,420.
In September we had 54 hours donated for an in kind value of $1080.00. The total in kind donated from the churches for meals and housing and meeting room and storage this month was $405.00.
We currently have 806 total cases. 795 of these have been closed.
Here is a neat story about two that were closed this month! Maria is a 61 year old woman who has battled Polio her entire life. She cannot read or write, she lives in Monutra with her husband who supports them by mowing grass for the area. Tropical Storm Faye damaged their roof, doors and interior walls. Two volunteers from Orlando, not connected to any church or other volunteer group came and made the repairs needed in her home. Sandra is a disabled widow who lives in Palmdale. Tropical Storm Fay damaged the roof and skirting on her trailer. A youth group from St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Maryland repaired her roof, ceiling and skirting.
We have thirty seven total cases currently being worked on by case managers, ten are awaiting documentation from the families until we can officially open them, four are FEMA cases. We have referred thirty cases to Centro Campesino, and are waiting for them to see who they can help and with what. We currently have half our cases fully funded waiting for volunteers to make repairs. Due to time constraints we are also going to be hiring contractors to help complete some of the work. We were able to close six cases this month with all needs being met, thanks to our great volunteers and case managers!
We currently have 2 full time case managers that are reviewing case information for Hurricane Wilma clients. Case managers are contacting clients to get needed documentation as quickly as possible. They are also doing duties of the former construction coordinator (or finding volunteers to do this) and the duties of the volunteer coordinator.
A Board of Directors meeting was held on September 17th. The next meeting will be November 19th at 12:00 at HRMC. Our next LTRO meeting will be at 12:30 following this meeting at the same location.
Our financial status is grim and we are just barely making ends meet, especially in terms of office supplies and administrative costs. We encourage you to help with our upcoming fundraiser by donating baked goods and items for our yard sale, or by donating any funds you may have, we know that these times are tough economically for all. In September we were able to raise $19,914.76; however this did not cover the month’s expenses of $28,172.96.
We have created a new Facebook page, come check it out: http://www.facebook.com/pages/CREW-Community-Rebuilding-Ecumenical-Workforce/156347733503?ref=mf.
WE NEED VOLUNTEERS AND FUNDS!!!!
We need volunteers who can help repair homes but also need volunteers to assist in the office. We really want local volunteers, people to invest in their own community. We also need volunteers to help with our upcoming yard sale in November. Call Renee to volunteer at (863) 983-2390.
Donations can be sent to 352 W. Arcade Ave., Clewiston, Florida 33440. We are a registered non-profit and donations are tax deductible.
You can also help by simply shopping through the iGive portal and registering CREW as your charity of choice. Simply visit the link below to do so. http://www.iGive.com/html/refer.cfm?memberid=324218&causeid=35958
Or you can shop for Avon products and benefit by CREW by shopping through this link: and using CREW as your Charity of choice by shopping though: http://www.beautyfundraising.com/
Use GoodSearch & GoodShop for CREW! Raise money for your favorite charity (CREW) or school just by searching the Internet with GoodSearch.com (powered by Yahoo), or shopping online with GoodShop.com. http://www.goodsearch.com/default.aspx
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Augut Monthly Report
CREW, Inc.
944 Harlem Academy Ave
Mailing address: 352 W Arcade Ave.
Clewiston, FL 33440
863-983-2390
FAX: 863-983-8137
http://www.facebook.com/pages/CREW-Community-Rebuilding-Ecumenical-Workforce/156347733503?ref=mf
http://huricanerecovery.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/CREWInc
Help CREW by simply shopping though iGive visit this link:http://www.iGive.com/html/refer.cfm?memberid=324218&causeid=35958
Raise money for CREW just by searching the Internet with GoodSearch.com (powered by Yahoo), or shopping online with GoodShop.com. http://www.goodsearch.com/default.aspx
Or buy Avon products on line, using CREW as your Charity of choice by shopping though: http://www.beautyfundraising.com/
AUGUST MONTHLY REPORT
CREW continues to struggle with a skeleton CREW and limited funding to help the area’s remaining Hurricane Wilma and Tropical Storm Fay victims. Our activities in August are listed below.
We are still helping our families surviving Hurricane Wilma. Wilma was the most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin. Wilma was the 22nd storm (including the subtropical storm discovered in reanalysis), 13th hurricane, 6th major hurricane, and 4th Category 5 hurricane of the record-breaking 2005 season. We have closed 729 cases from this storm. We have 41 cases still open, 9 of which are FEMA cases we are assisting with. There is another 18 that will be open pending clients bringing in requested documentation and completing our extensive application process to ensure damage is truly Hurricane related.
We are also still helping our families affected by Tropical Storm Fay. Fay was the 6th named storm of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season which hit our area August 19th. In our area (Hendry, Glades and Okeechobee Counties), Fay caused massive flooding, two deaths in Moorehaven, lots of flooding and wind damage. Roofs were torn apart and homes flooded. We responded by finding volunteers to muck out flooded homes and tarp roofs. We also partnered with the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church to get flood buckets, health kits, vitamins and tarps to people who needed them. We currently have about 56 clients from Fay documented, although not all have requested assistance. 20 are pending documentation to open, 17 are open. We have mucked out 6 homes and tarped 40 homes from this storm (this was prior to the cases even being opened). We worked on electrical work and repaired roofs for two of these clients in November.
We have successfully helped all of our Tropical Storm Ernesto families. Ernesto made landfall August 30th, 2006 in southern Florida, the storm produced a storm tide of about 1 foot (0.3 m) above astronomical tide levels, though no beach erosion was reported. Winds were fairly minor across the state, reaching 40 miles per hour (64 km/h) at a station on Lake Okeechobee. Ernesto dropped heavy rainfall across southwest Florida, with a state maximum of 8.72 inches (221 mm) recorded at South Golden Gate. The rainfall caused the Fisheating Creek to overflow, and some flooding also occurred in portions of Collier County. Floodwaters entered at least 13 homes in Palmdale.
Since May, 2006 to the end of August 2009, we have had 105 volunteer groups and 328 individual volunteers who have donated 26,408.50 hours for a cumulative in kind donation of $528,170.00. These groups have also donated supplies and cash for a cumulative total of $7,814.00. The local churches and businesses have also donated space and meals to these volunteers for a cumulative total of $426,175.00. We have also been donated storage space for a total in kind donation for the year of $1,050.00.
In August we had 2 gentlemen from Orlando return and volunteer to do some assessments and some repairs. They worked in Clewiston completing a roof repair and the bathroom repairs for 84 hours for an in kind donation of $1680.00. They also worked in Montura making some minor repairs to the window, baseboards and trim. The worked for 45 hours for an in kind donation of $900.00. These two volunteers stayed at the Iglesia De Dios Pentecostal Church for an in kind donation of $320.00.
We had a group from First United Methodist Church of Boca Raton come and work for a day on repairing flooring underlay in Labelle.. This group worked for 42 hours for a total in kind donation of $840.00.
We have been donated a space for storing all of our equipment by Sharon Harris in Moore Haven. This donation was started in January and the total in kind donation equals $1,235.00.
As of the end of August we have had 171 total hours donated for an in kind value of $3420.00. The total in kind donated from the churches for meals and housing and meeting room and storage this month was $320.00. Total overall donations by volunteers: $755.00.
We currently have 804 total cases. 772 of these have been closed.
We have 47 total cases, 37 are open and 10 are those awaiting documentation from the families until we can officially open them. We have referred thirty cases to Centro Campesino. We currently have nine cases fully funded waiting for volunteers to make repairs. Four of our cases are open FEMA cases we are assisting with.
We currently have 2 full time case managers that are reviewing case information for Hurricane Wilma clients. Case managers are contacting clients to get needed documentation as quickly as possible. They are also doing duties of the former construction coordinator (or finding volunteers to do this) and the duties of the volunteer coordinator.
No Executive was held this month. Our next meeting will be September 17th at 12:30 at HRMC. Our Board of Directors meeting will be at 12:00 just prior to LTRO meeting at the same location.
We have created a new Facebook page, come check it out: http://www.facebook.com/pages/CREW-Community-Rebuilding-Ecumenical-Workforce/156347733503?ref=mf.
WE NEED VOLUNTEERS AND FUNDS!!!!
We need volunteers who can help repair homes but also need volunteers to assist in the office. We really want local volunteers, people to invest in their own community. Call Renee to volunteer at (863) 983-2390.
Donations can be sent to 352 W. Arcade Ave., Clewiston, Florida 33440. We are a registered non-profit and donations are tax deductible.
You can also help by simply shopping through the iGive portal and registering CREW as your charity of choice. Simply visit the link below to do so. http://www.iGive.com/html/refer.cfm?memberid=324218&causeid=35958
Or you can shop for Avon products and benefit by CREW by shopping through this link: and using CREW as your Charity of choice by shopping though: http://www.beautyfundraising.com/
Use GoodSearch & GoodShop for CREW! Raise money for your favorite charity (CREW) or school just by searching the Internet with GoodSearch.com (powered by Yahoo), or shopping online with GoodShop.com. http://www.goodsearch.com/default.aspx
944 Harlem Academy Ave
Mailing address: 352 W Arcade Ave.
Clewiston, FL 33440
863-983-2390
FAX: 863-983-8137
http://www.facebook.com/pages/CREW-Community-Rebuilding-Ecumenical-Workforce/156347733503?ref=mf
http://huricanerecovery.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/CREWInc
Help CREW by simply shopping though iGive visit this link:http://www.iGive.com/html/refer.cfm?memberid=324218&causeid=35958
Raise money for CREW just by searching the Internet with GoodSearch.com (powered by Yahoo), or shopping online with GoodShop.com. http://www.goodsearch.com/default.aspx
Or buy Avon products on line, using CREW as your Charity of choice by shopping though: http://www.beautyfundraising.com/
AUGUST MONTHLY REPORT
CREW continues to struggle with a skeleton CREW and limited funding to help the area’s remaining Hurricane Wilma and Tropical Storm Fay victims. Our activities in August are listed below.
We are still helping our families surviving Hurricane Wilma. Wilma was the most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin. Wilma was the 22nd storm (including the subtropical storm discovered in reanalysis), 13th hurricane, 6th major hurricane, and 4th Category 5 hurricane of the record-breaking 2005 season. We have closed 729 cases from this storm. We have 41 cases still open, 9 of which are FEMA cases we are assisting with. There is another 18 that will be open pending clients bringing in requested documentation and completing our extensive application process to ensure damage is truly Hurricane related.
We are also still helping our families affected by Tropical Storm Fay. Fay was the 6th named storm of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season which hit our area August 19th. In our area (Hendry, Glades and Okeechobee Counties), Fay caused massive flooding, two deaths in Moorehaven, lots of flooding and wind damage. Roofs were torn apart and homes flooded. We responded by finding volunteers to muck out flooded homes and tarp roofs. We also partnered with the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church to get flood buckets, health kits, vitamins and tarps to people who needed them. We currently have about 56 clients from Fay documented, although not all have requested assistance. 20 are pending documentation to open, 17 are open. We have mucked out 6 homes and tarped 40 homes from this storm (this was prior to the cases even being opened). We worked on electrical work and repaired roofs for two of these clients in November.
We have successfully helped all of our Tropical Storm Ernesto families. Ernesto made landfall August 30th, 2006 in southern Florida, the storm produced a storm tide of about 1 foot (0.3 m) above astronomical tide levels, though no beach erosion was reported. Winds were fairly minor across the state, reaching 40 miles per hour (64 km/h) at a station on Lake Okeechobee. Ernesto dropped heavy rainfall across southwest Florida, with a state maximum of 8.72 inches (221 mm) recorded at South Golden Gate. The rainfall caused the Fisheating Creek to overflow, and some flooding also occurred in portions of Collier County. Floodwaters entered at least 13 homes in Palmdale.
Since May, 2006 to the end of August 2009, we have had 105 volunteer groups and 328 individual volunteers who have donated 26,408.50 hours for a cumulative in kind donation of $528,170.00. These groups have also donated supplies and cash for a cumulative total of $7,814.00. The local churches and businesses have also donated space and meals to these volunteers for a cumulative total of $426,175.00. We have also been donated storage space for a total in kind donation for the year of $1,050.00.
In August we had 2 gentlemen from Orlando return and volunteer to do some assessments and some repairs. They worked in Clewiston completing a roof repair and the bathroom repairs for 84 hours for an in kind donation of $1680.00. They also worked in Montura making some minor repairs to the window, baseboards and trim. The worked for 45 hours for an in kind donation of $900.00. These two volunteers stayed at the Iglesia De Dios Pentecostal Church for an in kind donation of $320.00.
We had a group from First United Methodist Church of Boca Raton come and work for a day on repairing flooring underlay in Labelle.. This group worked for 42 hours for a total in kind donation of $840.00.
We have been donated a space for storing all of our equipment by Sharon Harris in Moore Haven. This donation was started in January and the total in kind donation equals $1,235.00.
As of the end of August we have had 171 total hours donated for an in kind value of $3420.00. The total in kind donated from the churches for meals and housing and meeting room and storage this month was $320.00. Total overall donations by volunteers: $755.00.
We currently have 804 total cases. 772 of these have been closed.
We have 47 total cases, 37 are open and 10 are those awaiting documentation from the families until we can officially open them. We have referred thirty cases to Centro Campesino. We currently have nine cases fully funded waiting for volunteers to make repairs. Four of our cases are open FEMA cases we are assisting with.
We currently have 2 full time case managers that are reviewing case information for Hurricane Wilma clients. Case managers are contacting clients to get needed documentation as quickly as possible. They are also doing duties of the former construction coordinator (or finding volunteers to do this) and the duties of the volunteer coordinator.
No Executive was held this month. Our next meeting will be September 17th at 12:30 at HRMC. Our Board of Directors meeting will be at 12:00 just prior to LTRO meeting at the same location.
We have created a new Facebook page, come check it out: http://www.facebook.com/pages/CREW-Community-Rebuilding-Ecumenical-Workforce/156347733503?ref=mf.
WE NEED VOLUNTEERS AND FUNDS!!!!
We need volunteers who can help repair homes but also need volunteers to assist in the office. We really want local volunteers, people to invest in their own community. Call Renee to volunteer at (863) 983-2390.
Donations can be sent to 352 W. Arcade Ave., Clewiston, Florida 33440. We are a registered non-profit and donations are tax deductible.
You can also help by simply shopping through the iGive portal and registering CREW as your charity of choice. Simply visit the link below to do so. http://www.iGive.com/html/refer.cfm?memberid=324218&causeid=35958
Or you can shop for Avon products and benefit by CREW by shopping through this link: and using CREW as your Charity of choice by shopping though: http://www.beautyfundraising.com/
Use GoodSearch & GoodShop for CREW! Raise money for your favorite charity (CREW) or school just by searching the Internet with GoodSearch.com (powered by Yahoo), or shopping online with GoodShop.com. http://www.goodsearch.com/default.aspx
CREW, Inc.
944 Harlem Academy Ave
Mailing address: 352 W Arcade Ave.
Clewiston, FL 33440
863-983-2390
FAX: 863-983-8137
http://www.facebook.com/pages/CREW-Community-Rebuilding-Ecumenical-Workforce/156347733503?ref=mf
http://huricanerecovery.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/CREWInc
Help CREW by simply shopping though iGive visit this link:http://www.iGive.com/html/refer.cfm?memberid=324218&causeid=35958
Raise money for CREW just by searching the Internet with GoodSearch.com (powered by Yahoo), or shopping online with GoodShop.com. http://www.goodsearch.com/default.aspx
Or buy Avon products on line, using CREW as your Charity of choice by shopping though: http://www.beautyfundraising.com/
JULY MONTHLY REPORT
CREW continues to struggle with a skeleton CREW and limited funding to help the area’s remaining Hurricane Wilma and Tropical Storm Fay victims. Our activities in July are listed below.
We are still helping our families surviving Hurricane Wilma. Wilma was the most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin. Wilma was the 22nd storm (including the subtropical storm discovered in reanalysis), 13th hurricane, 6th major hurricane, and 4th Category 5 hurricane of the record-breaking 2005 season. We have closed 729 cases from this storm. We have 41 cases still open, 9 of which are FEMA cases we are assisting with. There is another 18 that will be open pending clients bringing in requested documentation and completing our extensive application process to ensure damage is truly Hurricane related.
We are also still helping our families affected by Tropical Storm Fay. Fay was the 6th named storm of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season which hit our area August 19th. In our area (Hendry, Glades and Okeechobee Counties), Fay caused massive flooding, two deaths in Moorehaven, lots of flooding and wind damage. Roofs were torn apart and homes flooded. We responded by finding volunteers to muck out flooded homes and tarp roofs. We also partnered with the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church to get flood buckets, health kits, vitamins and tarps to people who needed them. We currently have about 56 clients from Fay documented, although not all have requested assistance. 20 are pending documentation to open, 17 are open. We have mucked out 6 homes and tarped 40 homes from this storm (this was prior to the cases even being opened). We worked on electrical work and repaired roofs for two of these clients in November.
We have successfully helped all of our Tropical Storm Ernesto families. Ernesto made landfall August 30th, 2006 in southern Florida, the storm produced a storm tide of about 1 foot (0.3 m) above astronomical tide levels, though no beach erosion was reported. Winds were fairly minor across the state, reaching 40 miles per hour (64 km/h) at a station on Lake Okeechobee. Ernesto dropped heavy rainfall across southwest Florida, with a state maximum of 8.72 inches (221 mm) recorded at South Golden Gate. The rainfall caused the Fisheating Creek to overflow, and some flooding also occurred in portions of Collier County. Floodwaters entered at least 13 homes in Palmdale.
Since May, 2006 to the end of July 2009, we have had 104 volunteer groups and 323 individual volunteers who have donated 26,279.50 hours for a cumulative in kind donation of $52, 5590.00. These groups have also donated supplies and cash for a cumulative total of $7,814.00. The local churches and businesses have also donated space and meals to these volunteers for a cumulative total of $426,175.00.
On July 17, 2009 we had a group of 17 volunteers come from Williamsport Maryland to work for a week. This group consisted of 9 adults and 8 youth. The group stayed at the Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal Church while they were here working for an in kind donation of $340.00. The group worked in Palmdale, they tore off the old roof and replaced with a new roof, they also replaced skirting and cleaned up the yard. This group donated a total of 447 hours for an in kind donation of $8940.00. They also donated $250.00 to CREW.
On July 18, 2009 we had a group of 7 arrive from Plymouth Connecticut. The group stayed at the First United Methodist Church of Clewiston for an in kind donation of $140.00. The group worked on two homes while they were here, they worked in Felda replacing the flooring, toilet, shower surround and some drywall in the bathroom, flooring, paneling and ceiling tiles in one bedroom, flooring and tile in the kitchen. This group worked for a total of 175 hours on this project for an in kind donation of $3500.00. They also sent four different individuals to work in Moore Haven and repaired drywall, tile and shower surround in one bathroom, and they also installed an exterior door. The group worked for 66 hours for an in kind donation of $1320.00.
We also had 2 gentlemen from Orlando come and volunteer to do some assessments and some repairs. They worked on assessments for 15 hours for an in kind donation of $300.00. They also worked in Montura repairing an entire bathroom, coolsealing the roof and some minor repairs to the windows, they worked for 158.5 hours for an in kind donation of $3170. They also brought a donation of $505.00 for CREW.
We have been donated a space for storing all of our equipment by Sharon Harris in Moore Haven. This donation was started in January and the total in kind donation equals $1,050.00. Volunteers donated 861.5 hours this months for a total In Kind donations: $17,230.00. The total in kind donated from the churches for meals and housing and meeting room and storage this month was $480.00 and we also received donations by volunteers of $755.00.
We had our bi-monthly LTRO meeting in July at the Hendry Regional Medical Center Conference room for an in kind donation of $92.00. We had 3 volunteers donate 4.5 hours for an in kind donation of $84.38.
We currently have 804 total cases. 772 of these have been closed.
For Hurricane Wilma we have 18 open cases. As of the 31st of 18 cases have been assigned to case managers who have updated recovery plans. There are 5 cases assigned to case managers that are pending documentation before they are officially opened. One case was closed this month due to all clients needs having been met. Two were closed due to non-compliance. Three cases were closed because the damages were not in the living space. We were able to close eight cases overall. We have referred eleven cases to Centro Campesino. We currently have nine cases fully funded waiting for volunteers to make repairs. Four of our cases are open FEMA cases we are assisting with.
For Tropical Storm Fay we have fourteen open cases in, nine have been referred to Centro Campesino. In May, June and July, 7 new applications were started in Hendry, Glades and Okeechobee Counties. As of July 31st we have closed six cases. We have another 13 cases which are pending documentation and another 38 which have not completed their applications yet.
We currently have 2 full time case managers that are reviewing case information for Hurricane Wilma clients. Case managers are contacting clients to get needed documentation as quickly as possible. They are also doing duties of the former construction coordinator (or finding volunteers to do this) and the duties of the volunteer coordinator.
We had an Executive meeting July just prior to our LTRO and Unmet Needs meeting at the Hendry Regional Medical Center Conference room. These meetings are held every other month. Our LTRO (Long Term Recovery Organization) and Unmet Needs meeting has changed and is now meeting bi-monthly on the 3rd Friday of the Month. So our next meeting will be September 17th at 12:30 at HRMC. Our Board of Directors meeting will be at 12:00 just prior to LTRO meeting at the same location.
Trish attended the quarterly Florida VOAD meeting this month and is helping in planning for the National VOAD convention in Orlando in 2010.
We have created a new Facebook page, come check it out: http://www.facebook.com/pages/CREW-Community-Rebuilding-Ecumenical-Workforce/156347733503?ref=mf.
WE NEED VOLUNTEERS AND FUNDS!!!!
We need volunteers who can help repair homes but also need volunteers to assist in the office. We really want local volunteers, people to invest in their own community. Call Renee to volunteer at (863) 983-2390.
Donations can be sent to 352 W. Arcade Ave., Clewiston, Florida 33440. We are a registered non-profit and donations are tax deductible.
You can also help by simply shopping through the iGive portal and registering CREW as your charity of choice. Simply visit the link below to do so. http://www.iGive.com/html/refer.cfm?memberid=324218&causeid=35958
Or you can shop for Avon products and benefit by CREW by shopping through this link: and using CREW as your Charity of choice by shopping though: http://www.beautyfundraising.com/
Use GoodSearch & GoodShop for CREW! Raise money for your favorite charity (CREW) or school just by searching the Internet with GoodSearch.com (powered by Yahoo), or shopping online with GoodShop.com. http://www.goodsearch.com/default.aspx
944 Harlem Academy Ave
Mailing address: 352 W Arcade Ave.
Clewiston, FL 33440
863-983-2390
FAX: 863-983-8137
http://www.facebook.com/pages/CREW-Community-Rebuilding-Ecumenical-Workforce/156347733503?ref=mf
http://huricanerecovery.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/CREWInc
Help CREW by simply shopping though iGive visit this link:http://www.iGive.com/html/refer.cfm?memberid=324218&causeid=35958
Raise money for CREW just by searching the Internet with GoodSearch.com (powered by Yahoo), or shopping online with GoodShop.com. http://www.goodsearch.com/default.aspx
Or buy Avon products on line, using CREW as your Charity of choice by shopping though: http://www.beautyfundraising.com/
JULY MONTHLY REPORT
CREW continues to struggle with a skeleton CREW and limited funding to help the area’s remaining Hurricane Wilma and Tropical Storm Fay victims. Our activities in July are listed below.
We are still helping our families surviving Hurricane Wilma. Wilma was the most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin. Wilma was the 22nd storm (including the subtropical storm discovered in reanalysis), 13th hurricane, 6th major hurricane, and 4th Category 5 hurricane of the record-breaking 2005 season. We have closed 729 cases from this storm. We have 41 cases still open, 9 of which are FEMA cases we are assisting with. There is another 18 that will be open pending clients bringing in requested documentation and completing our extensive application process to ensure damage is truly Hurricane related.
We are also still helping our families affected by Tropical Storm Fay. Fay was the 6th named storm of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season which hit our area August 19th. In our area (Hendry, Glades and Okeechobee Counties), Fay caused massive flooding, two deaths in Moorehaven, lots of flooding and wind damage. Roofs were torn apart and homes flooded. We responded by finding volunteers to muck out flooded homes and tarp roofs. We also partnered with the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church to get flood buckets, health kits, vitamins and tarps to people who needed them. We currently have about 56 clients from Fay documented, although not all have requested assistance. 20 are pending documentation to open, 17 are open. We have mucked out 6 homes and tarped 40 homes from this storm (this was prior to the cases even being opened). We worked on electrical work and repaired roofs for two of these clients in November.
We have successfully helped all of our Tropical Storm Ernesto families. Ernesto made landfall August 30th, 2006 in southern Florida, the storm produced a storm tide of about 1 foot (0.3 m) above astronomical tide levels, though no beach erosion was reported. Winds were fairly minor across the state, reaching 40 miles per hour (64 km/h) at a station on Lake Okeechobee. Ernesto dropped heavy rainfall across southwest Florida, with a state maximum of 8.72 inches (221 mm) recorded at South Golden Gate. The rainfall caused the Fisheating Creek to overflow, and some flooding also occurred in portions of Collier County. Floodwaters entered at least 13 homes in Palmdale.
Since May, 2006 to the end of July 2009, we have had 104 volunteer groups and 323 individual volunteers who have donated 26,279.50 hours for a cumulative in kind donation of $52, 5590.00. These groups have also donated supplies and cash for a cumulative total of $7,814.00. The local churches and businesses have also donated space and meals to these volunteers for a cumulative total of $426,175.00.
On July 17, 2009 we had a group of 17 volunteers come from Williamsport Maryland to work for a week. This group consisted of 9 adults and 8 youth. The group stayed at the Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal Church while they were here working for an in kind donation of $340.00. The group worked in Palmdale, they tore off the old roof and replaced with a new roof, they also replaced skirting and cleaned up the yard. This group donated a total of 447 hours for an in kind donation of $8940.00. They also donated $250.00 to CREW.
On July 18, 2009 we had a group of 7 arrive from Plymouth Connecticut. The group stayed at the First United Methodist Church of Clewiston for an in kind donation of $140.00. The group worked on two homes while they were here, they worked in Felda replacing the flooring, toilet, shower surround and some drywall in the bathroom, flooring, paneling and ceiling tiles in one bedroom, flooring and tile in the kitchen. This group worked for a total of 175 hours on this project for an in kind donation of $3500.00. They also sent four different individuals to work in Moore Haven and repaired drywall, tile and shower surround in one bathroom, and they also installed an exterior door. The group worked for 66 hours for an in kind donation of $1320.00.
We also had 2 gentlemen from Orlando come and volunteer to do some assessments and some repairs. They worked on assessments for 15 hours for an in kind donation of $300.00. They also worked in Montura repairing an entire bathroom, coolsealing the roof and some minor repairs to the windows, they worked for 158.5 hours for an in kind donation of $3170. They also brought a donation of $505.00 for CREW.
We have been donated a space for storing all of our equipment by Sharon Harris in Moore Haven. This donation was started in January and the total in kind donation equals $1,050.00. Volunteers donated 861.5 hours this months for a total In Kind donations: $17,230.00. The total in kind donated from the churches for meals and housing and meeting room and storage this month was $480.00 and we also received donations by volunteers of $755.00.
We had our bi-monthly LTRO meeting in July at the Hendry Regional Medical Center Conference room for an in kind donation of $92.00. We had 3 volunteers donate 4.5 hours for an in kind donation of $84.38.
We currently have 804 total cases. 772 of these have been closed.
For Hurricane Wilma we have 18 open cases. As of the 31st of 18 cases have been assigned to case managers who have updated recovery plans. There are 5 cases assigned to case managers that are pending documentation before they are officially opened. One case was closed this month due to all clients needs having been met. Two were closed due to non-compliance. Three cases were closed because the damages were not in the living space. We were able to close eight cases overall. We have referred eleven cases to Centro Campesino. We currently have nine cases fully funded waiting for volunteers to make repairs. Four of our cases are open FEMA cases we are assisting with.
For Tropical Storm Fay we have fourteen open cases in, nine have been referred to Centro Campesino. In May, June and July, 7 new applications were started in Hendry, Glades and Okeechobee Counties. As of July 31st we have closed six cases. We have another 13 cases which are pending documentation and another 38 which have not completed their applications yet.
We currently have 2 full time case managers that are reviewing case information for Hurricane Wilma clients. Case managers are contacting clients to get needed documentation as quickly as possible. They are also doing duties of the former construction coordinator (or finding volunteers to do this) and the duties of the volunteer coordinator.
We had an Executive meeting July just prior to our LTRO and Unmet Needs meeting at the Hendry Regional Medical Center Conference room. These meetings are held every other month. Our LTRO (Long Term Recovery Organization) and Unmet Needs meeting has changed and is now meeting bi-monthly on the 3rd Friday of the Month. So our next meeting will be September 17th at 12:30 at HRMC. Our Board of Directors meeting will be at 12:00 just prior to LTRO meeting at the same location.
Trish attended the quarterly Florida VOAD meeting this month and is helping in planning for the National VOAD convention in Orlando in 2010.
We have created a new Facebook page, come check it out: http://www.facebook.com/pages/CREW-Community-Rebuilding-Ecumenical-Workforce/156347733503?ref=mf.
WE NEED VOLUNTEERS AND FUNDS!!!!
We need volunteers who can help repair homes but also need volunteers to assist in the office. We really want local volunteers, people to invest in their own community. Call Renee to volunteer at (863) 983-2390.
Donations can be sent to 352 W. Arcade Ave., Clewiston, Florida 33440. We are a registered non-profit and donations are tax deductible.
You can also help by simply shopping through the iGive portal and registering CREW as your charity of choice. Simply visit the link below to do so. http://www.iGive.com/html/refer.cfm?memberid=324218&causeid=35958
Or you can shop for Avon products and benefit by CREW by shopping through this link: and using CREW as your Charity of choice by shopping though: http://www.beautyfundraising.com/
Use GoodSearch & GoodShop for CREW! Raise money for your favorite charity (CREW) or school just by searching the Internet with GoodSearch.com (powered by Yahoo), or shopping online with GoodShop.com. http://www.goodsearch.com/default.aspx
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
CREW 2009 1st half report
6 month Report for 2009
Hurricane Season is upon us. Yet we are working on clients’ still needing help from Hurricane Wilma in 2005 and Tropical Storm Faye in 2008. What we need most is skilled volunteers and funds for operational expenses and materials.
Hurricane Wilma was the most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin. Wilma was the 22nd storm (including the subtropical storm discovered in reanalysis), 13th hurricane, 6th major hurricane, and 4th Category 5 hurricane of the record-breaking 2005 season. We have closed 748 cases from this storm. We have 48 cases still open.
Tropical Storm Fay was the 6th named storm of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season which hit our area August 19th. In our area (Hendry, Glades and Okeechobee Counties), Fay caused massive flooding, two deaths in Moorehaven, lots of flooding and wind damage. Roofs were torn apart and homes flooded. We responded by finding volunteers to muck out flooded homes and tarp roofs. We also partnered with the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church to get flood buckets, health kits, vitamins and tarps to people who needed them. We currently have about 56 clients from Fay, 35 are pending documentation to open, 2 are open. We have mucked out 6 homes and tarped 40 homes from this storm (this was prior to the cases even being opened).
We have closed all the cases attached with Tropical Storm Ernesto, which was the costliest tropical cyclone of the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season. The sixth tropical storm and first hurricane of the season, Ernesto developed from a tropical wave on August 24 in the eastern Caribbean Sea. Ernesto first affected the northern Caribbean, reaching minimal hurricane status near Haiti before weakening and moving across eastern Cuba as a tropical storm. Despite initial predictions for it to track through the eastern Gulf of Mexico as a major hurricane, Ernesto moved across eastern Florida as a tropical storm and caused quite a bit of wind and flooding damage throughout our area.
We also successfully ended our Mitigation program that was funded through Volunteer Florida Foundation and provided us the funds necessary to hire licensed and screened professionals to mitigate 100 low income homes with storm shutters throughout our service area.
Since CREW began keeping records, to date we have had 102 volunteer groups and 321 individual volunteers who have donated 25,591.5 hours for a cumulative in kind donation of $480,839.38. These groups have also donated supplies and cash for a cumulative total of $7,059.00. The local churches and businesses have also donated space and meals to these volunteers for a cumulative total of $425,695. A local storage company has donated storage space to us for the year for an in kind donation of $900.00.
By the end of the first half of 2009, we have closed 789 cases due to all needs being met, or being referred to other agencies because their needs are not appropriate for CREW assistance or they were able to get their needs met with assistance from our case managers by helping them apply for assistance with partner and other agencies we referred them to.
2009 provided CREW with many volunteers. Two local volunteers and volunteers from Christian Contractors helped us assess numerous homes to discover if needs were truly hurricane related and if so, what skills and materials would be needed to make repairs. Two other local volunteers helped in the office, helped with small repairs and joined in with the other volunteers to help complete repairs.
Our first quarter also saw, eight volunteer groups from various faiths came from Florida, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Ohio traveled to our rural area and worked on numerous homes helping us to finish repairs and close more cases. They replaced two total roofs, repaired seven other roofs, replaced drywall, repaired plumbing and replaced flooring.
A church which regularly sends us volunteers, Pompano Beach Presbyterian Church came on May 30 and hung drywall, installed vinyl flooring, baseboards and installed a storm door for one of our families.
Each of the months from January to May we had groups from East Lake United Methodist Church return to work on repairing bathrooms, repairing plumbing and installing a tub and 1 client’s bathroom installing a new ceiling and painting the bedroom ceiling. This group consisted of 3 Caucasian males and 1 Asian Indian male and 3 Caucasian females. This group worked a total of 70 hours for an in kind donation of $1312.25. The group arrived late Friday night and was hosted by First United Methodist Church for an in kind donation of $140.00. This group also sent a donation in June of $1376.37.
Three couples (one from New York, one from Pennsylvania, and another from Michigan) came and built shelves for our shed, and replaced drywall, worked on electrical and plumbing issues, and helped repair roofs. These couples came in the first quarter of this year.
In June First Congregation of Plymouth from Virginia tore out old carpet, ceiling drywall and bathroom underlay and replaced the ceiling and flooring. Alive in You Camp came also, the replaced cabinets, painted ceilings, replaced doors and paneling, replaced a vanity, took up old water damaged carpet and replaced with vinyl tiles
We have been donated a space for storing all of our equipment by Sharon Harris in Moore Haven. This donation was started in January and the total in kind donation equals $600.00 to date.
CREW remains an active member of FIND and Florida VOAD. Due to funding issues, the executive director has moved to part time, but is actively involved with CREW as their executive director, and remains an officer for Florida VOAD. We are holding LTRO meetings this quarter every other month.
We still have a lot of needs to meet.
We had 67 families from Tropical Storm Fay ask for help, we have had the volunteers and funds to help 8 of them so far. We have funding for several more, and we have another 8 of these families who have completed the application process with CREW. This requires the families to prove the need, prove the damages were done by the storm (with the help of our Construction Coordinator) and provide financial proof of need. The rest of the 67 families have begun the application process but have not yet brought in all the required documentation needed for verification. Our case managers are diligently working on this. And as for Hurricane Wilma, we have 19 more cases that need volunteers and funding.
An example of those in need:
Isabella, a 54 year old woman lives with her husband Judge, 58 years old. Hurricane Wilma left them with severe damages. They had roof, flooring walls and structure damage to the home. They received $5,661.94 from their insurance company which they used to repair their roof and parts of the flooring. They still have part of the living room floor to repair and the bathroom and bedroom are also in need of new ceiling and walls. Judge’s income was the only income in the household and after the storm he was laid off by U.S Sugar Corp. due to there down sizing. Isabella receives disability and with his 401k funds they are currently paying their bills and are barely making ends meet. If Judge does not find employment soon he will run out of his 401k. If we can get volunteers, the cost of materials to fix their home will be $500.00.
Decrease in funding has resulted in a decrease in staff members and an increase in the duties of remaining staff members. In addition, lower numbers of cases and less volunteers willing to come to this area has resulted in less work load. We also have used unskilled volunteers quite a bit, resulting in the fact that the cases left need highly and specifically skilled volunteers. Our part time construction coordinator is able to assist these volunteer groups and help with assessments. We are limited in the volunteers we can take now as well, as most of the need we have left is only for highly or specifically skilled volunteers. The executive director has used he pull influence (lol) to encourage the help of a highly skilled construction worker, her husband for some of the jobs, when he is not working on other jobs. Of course the bad turn in economy and the less number of new construction projects has helped us out in this area as well.
Being able to stay in tact to help with small disasters like fires, and being able to continue to teach community to be prepared for future storms, and remain intact in order to be prepared for any future storms is our dream, but no funding is foreseen for this. Lack of funding has caused us to loose our full time director to a part time person. We are part of the Glades County Disaster Plan and work closely with them in keeping plans up to date. We have agreed to manage volunteers and donations for the county in the event of a disaster for their county.
We did receive new grants this year from UMCOR, UCC and Volunteer Florida Foundation, which is helping to pay staff and buy materials for volunteers.
Trish Adams and Renee Mergott presented at the Governor’s Hurricane Conference teaching a workshop entitled “Volunteers, Keep ‘em coming back”.
Trish and Renee also attended the FLVOAD meeting in May. Trish was re-elected to remain as part of the Executive Committee for FLVOAD, as we prepare to be the site of the 2010 National VOAD conference which will be held in Orlando.
CREW won the Governor’s Hurricane Conference Humanitarian Award in May. One of our funders, UMCOR shared in winning the Humanitarian Award with us, according to the committee, they had several nominees and narrowed it down to the two of us and decided to give us both the award. We were nominated by Glades County Emergency Services Director, whose own mobile home was destroyed in a fire this year, yet denied assistance from CREW when we offered, stating that she knew their were others that needed it more.
As of June 30, 2008 we have spent all of the funds from our organized fundraisers, as well as grants from CRWRC, the United Way/NFL grant, the United Way of Lee Hendry and Glades, Lutheran Disaster, the Rotary, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, and several grants from UCC, Volunteer Florida Foundation and the Disaster Recovery Ministry of the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. We currently have $4,188.49 in our general fund from private donors and small fundraising activities; $5,642.60 from the United Church of Christ Grant; $ 24,698.90 from Volunteer Florida Foundation for Tropical Storm Fay, and $137.74 from Disaster Recovery Ministry of the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church, however we are expecting more grant funds from them soon.
What is our dream, our plans? Continue to recruit skilled volunteers. Continue fundraising activities and grant researching and writing. Work with local agencies to help Tropical Storm Fay victims who have not applied for assistance yet get the help they need. Be available to help small disaster victims such as fire and floods, as well as be here to help in the event of another major disaster and educated our community about the need for mitigation and planning prior to a storm’s threat.
WE NEED VOLUNTEERS AND FUNDS!!!!
We need SKILLED volunteers who can help repair homes but also need volunteers to assist in the office. We really want local volunteers, people to invest in their own community. Call Renee to volunteer at (863) 983-2390.
You can also help CREW by simply shopping. If you like AVON, you can visit our AVON rep’s website for more information and to register: http://dbroniak.avonrepresentative.com/. We just recently received our first check from AVON for this new fundraiser.
You can also help by simply shopping through the iGive portal and registering CREW as your charity of choice. Simply visit the link below to do so. We are getting regular monthly checks from iGive so I know it is working! http://www.iGive.com/html/refer.cfm?memberid=324218&causeid=35958
Donations can be sent to 352 W. Arcade Ave., Clewiston, Florida 33440. We are a registered non-profit and donations are tax deductible.
Visit our blog site to learn more about what we are up to and to see pictures. It is not always being kept up to date but we are trying! http://huricanerecovery.blogspot.com/. We also have recently created a Facebook page, you can find us at http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/pages/CREW-Community-Rebuilding-Ecumenical-Workforce/156347733503?ref=ts.
Hurricane Season is upon us. Yet we are working on clients’ still needing help from Hurricane Wilma in 2005 and Tropical Storm Faye in 2008. What we need most is skilled volunteers and funds for operational expenses and materials.
Hurricane Wilma was the most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin. Wilma was the 22nd storm (including the subtropical storm discovered in reanalysis), 13th hurricane, 6th major hurricane, and 4th Category 5 hurricane of the record-breaking 2005 season. We have closed 748 cases from this storm. We have 48 cases still open.
Tropical Storm Fay was the 6th named storm of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season which hit our area August 19th. In our area (Hendry, Glades and Okeechobee Counties), Fay caused massive flooding, two deaths in Moorehaven, lots of flooding and wind damage. Roofs were torn apart and homes flooded. We responded by finding volunteers to muck out flooded homes and tarp roofs. We also partnered with the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church to get flood buckets, health kits, vitamins and tarps to people who needed them. We currently have about 56 clients from Fay, 35 are pending documentation to open, 2 are open. We have mucked out 6 homes and tarped 40 homes from this storm (this was prior to the cases even being opened).
We have closed all the cases attached with Tropical Storm Ernesto, which was the costliest tropical cyclone of the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season. The sixth tropical storm and first hurricane of the season, Ernesto developed from a tropical wave on August 24 in the eastern Caribbean Sea. Ernesto first affected the northern Caribbean, reaching minimal hurricane status near Haiti before weakening and moving across eastern Cuba as a tropical storm. Despite initial predictions for it to track through the eastern Gulf of Mexico as a major hurricane, Ernesto moved across eastern Florida as a tropical storm and caused quite a bit of wind and flooding damage throughout our area.
We also successfully ended our Mitigation program that was funded through Volunteer Florida Foundation and provided us the funds necessary to hire licensed and screened professionals to mitigate 100 low income homes with storm shutters throughout our service area.
Since CREW began keeping records, to date we have had 102 volunteer groups and 321 individual volunteers who have donated 25,591.5 hours for a cumulative in kind donation of $480,839.38. These groups have also donated supplies and cash for a cumulative total of $7,059.00. The local churches and businesses have also donated space and meals to these volunteers for a cumulative total of $425,695. A local storage company has donated storage space to us for the year for an in kind donation of $900.00.
By the end of the first half of 2009, we have closed 789 cases due to all needs being met, or being referred to other agencies because their needs are not appropriate for CREW assistance or they were able to get their needs met with assistance from our case managers by helping them apply for assistance with partner and other agencies we referred them to.
2009 provided CREW with many volunteers. Two local volunteers and volunteers from Christian Contractors helped us assess numerous homes to discover if needs were truly hurricane related and if so, what skills and materials would be needed to make repairs. Two other local volunteers helped in the office, helped with small repairs and joined in with the other volunteers to help complete repairs.
Our first quarter also saw, eight volunteer groups from various faiths came from Florida, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Ohio traveled to our rural area and worked on numerous homes helping us to finish repairs and close more cases. They replaced two total roofs, repaired seven other roofs, replaced drywall, repaired plumbing and replaced flooring.
A church which regularly sends us volunteers, Pompano Beach Presbyterian Church came on May 30 and hung drywall, installed vinyl flooring, baseboards and installed a storm door for one of our families.
Each of the months from January to May we had groups from East Lake United Methodist Church return to work on repairing bathrooms, repairing plumbing and installing a tub and 1 client’s bathroom installing a new ceiling and painting the bedroom ceiling. This group consisted of 3 Caucasian males and 1 Asian Indian male and 3 Caucasian females. This group worked a total of 70 hours for an in kind donation of $1312.25. The group arrived late Friday night and was hosted by First United Methodist Church for an in kind donation of $140.00. This group also sent a donation in June of $1376.37.
Three couples (one from New York, one from Pennsylvania, and another from Michigan) came and built shelves for our shed, and replaced drywall, worked on electrical and plumbing issues, and helped repair roofs. These couples came in the first quarter of this year.
In June First Congregation of Plymouth from Virginia tore out old carpet, ceiling drywall and bathroom underlay and replaced the ceiling and flooring. Alive in You Camp came also, the replaced cabinets, painted ceilings, replaced doors and paneling, replaced a vanity, took up old water damaged carpet and replaced with vinyl tiles
We have been donated a space for storing all of our equipment by Sharon Harris in Moore Haven. This donation was started in January and the total in kind donation equals $600.00 to date.
CREW remains an active member of FIND and Florida VOAD. Due to funding issues, the executive director has moved to part time, but is actively involved with CREW as their executive director, and remains an officer for Florida VOAD. We are holding LTRO meetings this quarter every other month.
We still have a lot of needs to meet.
We had 67 families from Tropical Storm Fay ask for help, we have had the volunteers and funds to help 8 of them so far. We have funding for several more, and we have another 8 of these families who have completed the application process with CREW. This requires the families to prove the need, prove the damages were done by the storm (with the help of our Construction Coordinator) and provide financial proof of need. The rest of the 67 families have begun the application process but have not yet brought in all the required documentation needed for verification. Our case managers are diligently working on this. And as for Hurricane Wilma, we have 19 more cases that need volunteers and funding.
An example of those in need:
Isabella, a 54 year old woman lives with her husband Judge, 58 years old. Hurricane Wilma left them with severe damages. They had roof, flooring walls and structure damage to the home. They received $5,661.94 from their insurance company which they used to repair their roof and parts of the flooring. They still have part of the living room floor to repair and the bathroom and bedroom are also in need of new ceiling and walls. Judge’s income was the only income in the household and after the storm he was laid off by U.S Sugar Corp. due to there down sizing. Isabella receives disability and with his 401k funds they are currently paying their bills and are barely making ends meet. If Judge does not find employment soon he will run out of his 401k. If we can get volunteers, the cost of materials to fix their home will be $500.00.
Decrease in funding has resulted in a decrease in staff members and an increase in the duties of remaining staff members. In addition, lower numbers of cases and less volunteers willing to come to this area has resulted in less work load. We also have used unskilled volunteers quite a bit, resulting in the fact that the cases left need highly and specifically skilled volunteers. Our part time construction coordinator is able to assist these volunteer groups and help with assessments. We are limited in the volunteers we can take now as well, as most of the need we have left is only for highly or specifically skilled volunteers. The executive director has used he pull influence (lol) to encourage the help of a highly skilled construction worker, her husband for some of the jobs, when he is not working on other jobs. Of course the bad turn in economy and the less number of new construction projects has helped us out in this area as well.
Being able to stay in tact to help with small disasters like fires, and being able to continue to teach community to be prepared for future storms, and remain intact in order to be prepared for any future storms is our dream, but no funding is foreseen for this. Lack of funding has caused us to loose our full time director to a part time person. We are part of the Glades County Disaster Plan and work closely with them in keeping plans up to date. We have agreed to manage volunteers and donations for the county in the event of a disaster for their county.
We did receive new grants this year from UMCOR, UCC and Volunteer Florida Foundation, which is helping to pay staff and buy materials for volunteers.
Trish Adams and Renee Mergott presented at the Governor’s Hurricane Conference teaching a workshop entitled “Volunteers, Keep ‘em coming back”.
Trish and Renee also attended the FLVOAD meeting in May. Trish was re-elected to remain as part of the Executive Committee for FLVOAD, as we prepare to be the site of the 2010 National VOAD conference which will be held in Orlando.
CREW won the Governor’s Hurricane Conference Humanitarian Award in May. One of our funders, UMCOR shared in winning the Humanitarian Award with us, according to the committee, they had several nominees and narrowed it down to the two of us and decided to give us both the award. We were nominated by Glades County Emergency Services Director, whose own mobile home was destroyed in a fire this year, yet denied assistance from CREW when we offered, stating that she knew their were others that needed it more.
As of June 30, 2008 we have spent all of the funds from our organized fundraisers, as well as grants from CRWRC, the United Way/NFL grant, the United Way of Lee Hendry and Glades, Lutheran Disaster, the Rotary, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, and several grants from UCC, Volunteer Florida Foundation and the Disaster Recovery Ministry of the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. We currently have $4,188.49 in our general fund from private donors and small fundraising activities; $5,642.60 from the United Church of Christ Grant; $ 24,698.90 from Volunteer Florida Foundation for Tropical Storm Fay, and $137.74 from Disaster Recovery Ministry of the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church, however we are expecting more grant funds from them soon.
What is our dream, our plans? Continue to recruit skilled volunteers. Continue fundraising activities and grant researching and writing. Work with local agencies to help Tropical Storm Fay victims who have not applied for assistance yet get the help they need. Be available to help small disaster victims such as fire and floods, as well as be here to help in the event of another major disaster and educated our community about the need for mitigation and planning prior to a storm’s threat.
WE NEED VOLUNTEERS AND FUNDS!!!!
We need SKILLED volunteers who can help repair homes but also need volunteers to assist in the office. We really want local volunteers, people to invest in their own community. Call Renee to volunteer at (863) 983-2390.
You can also help CREW by simply shopping. If you like AVON, you can visit our AVON rep’s website for more information and to register: http://dbroniak.avonrepresentative.com/. We just recently received our first check from AVON for this new fundraiser.
You can also help by simply shopping through the iGive portal and registering CREW as your charity of choice. Simply visit the link below to do so. We are getting regular monthly checks from iGive so I know it is working! http://www.iGive.com/html/refer.cfm?memberid=324218&causeid=35958
Donations can be sent to 352 W. Arcade Ave., Clewiston, Florida 33440. We are a registered non-profit and donations are tax deductible.
Visit our blog site to learn more about what we are up to and to see pictures. It is not always being kept up to date but we are trying! http://huricanerecovery.blogspot.com/. We also have recently created a Facebook page, you can find us at http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/pages/CREW-Community-Rebuilding-Ecumenical-Workforce/156347733503?ref=ts.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Monday, February 09, 2009
Thank God for our Disaster Case Managers!
Hilda and Renee are our sole remaining case managers. They are diligently working on verifying clients income, insurance and FEMA assistance, so that we know how we can help them. When they are not doing this they are assisting with recruiting local volunteers who know a thing of two about construction, helping find the volunteers a place to stay, often finding a church or two to feed them while they are here, making sure they have the supplies and materials necessary to do the work, helping them find all the homes they are working on, and often translating for the clients. So in addition to their case management duties, they work as office managers, receptionists, volunte
er recruiters, volunteer coordinators, public relations specialists, translators, tour guides, social service referral agents (of course this is integral part of the case management), making reports to the director so that she can in turn make reports to our funders, using their own personal trucks and SUVs to pick up and deliver supplies, finding places in the community for us to store our supplies, ensuring vendors get paid, and construction coordinators (even though they have limited knowledge of construction) assisting as best they can the damages done to a home and helping the volunteers get what they need to complete the work. In order to do this they are often working after hours and weekends to meet with clients who work, and to assist volunteers who don't want to just work an 8 hour day, and often arrive late at night and on the weekends.
er recruiters, volunteer coordinators, public relations specialists, translators, tour guides, social service referral agents (of course this is integral part of the case management), making reports to the director so that she can in turn make reports to our funders, using their own personal trucks and SUVs to pick up and deliver supplies, finding places in the community for us to store our supplies, ensuring vendors get paid, and construction coordinators (even though they have limited knowledge of construction) assisting as best they can the damages done to a home and helping the volunteers get what they need to complete the work. In order to do this they are often working after hours and weekends to meet with clients who work, and to assist volunteers who don't want to just work an 8 hour day, and often arrive late at night and on the weekends. CREW salutes their tremendous case managers!
We also salute the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church and UMCOR who have funded our case mangers since we began working after Hurricane Wilma.
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Jerry and Linda continue to help Disaster Victims!
Jerry and Linda Neth from Pennsylvania are still here! Bless their hearts, they are retired and love doing this kind of work. From what I can see they have shown they are quite skillled at it as well. We are trying to convince them to move here but have not had any luck yet. Of course they came here to get warm I am sure, and our freezing wheather last night probably did not help our case any!If you want to see all of our pictures from this blog in one album, check this out: http://picasaweb.google.com/CREWsPics/CREWInc?authkey=ZC2OTnqhJsY&feat=directlink
Monday, February 02, 2009
Yearly Report
Boy, I have not been posting the monthly reports, oops. I will get back to that now, however, to make up for the many I have missed I am posting our yearly report here! We did great work, check it out!
This year has been an active one, not only in responding to new storms, but old ones as well. CREW has been there throughout it all for the residents or our three rural counties. 
This is a picture of the track of Fay in Florida.
According to Wikipedia, “the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season …officially started on June 1 and ended on November 30. …However, the formation of Tropical Storm Arthur caused the season to start two days early…. Although not an El Niño or La Niña year, 2008 is the third most costly season on record, behind only the 2004 and 2005 seasons, with up to $45 billion in damage (2008 USD). The season began far more actively than normal. The 2008 Atlantic hurricane season was the fourth busiest year since 1944 and the only year on record in which a major hurricane existed in every month from July through November in the North Atlantic …Four storms formed before the start of August alone, and the season also had the earliest known date for three storms to be active on the same day: Hurricane Bertha, and Tropical Storms Cristobal and Dolly were all active on July 20. 2008 was also one of only nine Atlantic seasons on record to have a major hurricane form before August. This is also the first year four or more Category 4 storms have formed in a single year since 2005, which had 5, and was one of only 7 Atlantic seasons to feature a major hurricane in November.”
Luckily our area only had one storm to recover from this year: “Tropical Storm Fay, which became the first Atlantic tropical cyclone to make landfall in the same U.S. state on 4 separate occasions; Fay crossed Hispaniola, Cuba, and hit south Florida beginning late on August 18, slowly tracking northeastward across the peninsula. Significant flooding resulted in much of eastern Florida, along with some wind damage. After crossing into the Atlantic, Fay turned westward again and crossed northern Florida on August 22. As it zigzagged from water to land, it became the first storm in recorded history to make landfall in Florida four times. Fay weakened into a tropical depression along the north coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Fay eventually weakened into a remnant low around noon on August 26 while located over Alabama, and then rapidly transitioned into an extratropical low six hours later. Fay was responsible for 36 deaths and at least $180 million in damage (2008 USD).”
Tropical Storm Fay was the 6th named storm of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season which hit our area August 19th. In our area (Hendry, Glades and Okeechobee Counties), Fay caused massive flooding, two deaths in Moorehaven, lots of flooding and wind damage. Roofs were torn apart and homes flooded. We responded by finding volunteers to muck out flooded homes and tarp roofs. We also partnered with the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church to get flood buckets, health kits, vitamins and tarps to people who needed them. We currently have about 56 clients from Fay documented, although not all have requested assistance. 20 are pending documentation to open, 17 are open. We have mucked out 6 homes and tarped 40 homes from this storm (this was prior to the cases even being opened). We worked on electrical work and repaired roofs for two of these clients in November.
But we spent the year not only helping families respond and recover from this storm, but from our previous storms, from which the community is still trying to recover.
Hurricane Wilma was the most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin. Wilma was the 22nd storm (including the subtropical storm discovered in reanalysis), 13th hurricane, 6th major hurricane, and 4th Category 5 hurricane of the record-breaking 2005 season. We have closed 729 cases from this storm. We have 41 cases still open, 9 of which are FEMA cases we are assisting with. There is another 18 that will be open pending clients bringing in requested documentation and completing our extensive application process to ensure damage is truly Hurricane related.
Tropical Storm Ernesto made landfall August 30th, 2006 in southern Florida, the storm produced a storm tide of about 1 foot (0.3 m) above astronomical tide levels, though no beach erosion was reported. Winds were fairly minor across the state, reaching 40 miles per hour (64 km/h) at a station on Lake Okeechobee. Ernesto dropped heavy rainfall across southwest Florida, with a state maximum of 8.72 inches (221 mm) recorded at South Golden Gate. The rainfall caused the Fisheating Creek to overflow, and some flooding also occurred in portions of Collier County. Floodwaters entered at least 13 homes in Palmdale. We successfully closed our 7 cases with flood damage.
Volunteers are the back bone of CREW. This year we have been blessed with 349 volunteers from all over the country. We have had 38 different groups come and help with repairing our community. These groups consisted of 3 Lutheran groups; 1 Catholic group; 3 Multi-Denominational groups; 4 CRWRC groups; 30 Methodist groups; 3 Presbyterian individuals; 2 Baptist individuals; 5 Pentecostal individuals and 52 Individuals not affiliated with a church group. These groups worked on 101 homes, one of which was built from the ground up and the others they worked on making repairs to walls, ceiling, floors, roofs, cabinets, siding, skirting, installing windows, building handicap ramps, demolition, and debris cleanup and tarping roofs.
In 2008 we had a total of 308 volunteers that we have documentation for. These volunteers worked on several projects while they were here. They contributed a total of 8104.5 volunteer hours with an in kind value of $151,959.38.
We received cash donations in 2008 totaling $1100.00 from 2 volunteer groups and 1 business in town. Community Presbyterian Church provided housing for 1 group for a total in kind donation of $56.00. First United Methodist Church of Clewiston provided housing for 16 groups for a total in kind donation of $2782.00.Calvary Baptist Church provided housing for 2 individuals for an in kind donation of $40.00. First Baptist Church of Clewiston provided housing for 1 group for an in kind donation of $140.00. Meals provided by churches or Hendry Regional Medical Center total an in kind donation of $2090.00. Overall, $16,865.81, received from several different groups, and businesses.
We also did tremendous work in the area of case management, thanks to The Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church and UMCOR who funded this project. From our original 794 clients, we had 35 open cases when 2008 ended.
We have closed 81 cases this year. Of these 81, 25 were closed thanks to CREW meeting all of their needs. The others, after providing case management, 19 were referred to other agencies, 22 were closed due to clients refusing services by not completing required paperwork or following up with application process, 3 cases were closed due the damages not being in the living area of the home (i.e. shed or garage), and 2 more cases were closed because the families were able to meet their own needs and make all repairs. Of the cases we have closed, we had 59 females, 22 males, 36 Hispanic, 28 black, and 5 were Caucasian. Their age groups were: 7 fell between the ages of 20 and 29, 12 between 30-39, 25 between 40-49, 18 between the ages of 50-59, 13 between 60 and 69, and 6 were 70-79 years old.
At the end of the year we had 35 open cases and 16 more pending cases. Due to our waiting lists, and limited number of new disasters, we are not taking on new clients, unless they can fund the projects themselves or have very extenuating circumstances. Of our open cases, 26 are female, 9 male, 17 Hispanic, 13 black, and 5 Caucasian. One of them is 20-29, 7 age 30-39, 5 age 40-49, 11 age 50-59, 3 age 60-69, 5 age 70-79, and 3 age 80-89.
Partnerships are another great accomplishment CREW has made. We would never have been able to complete as much as we have without the help of our partners. Through our partners, grantors and donors we have been able to buy not only the supplies and materials that our volunteers use, but have also been able to hire local, licensed contractors (thus helping the local economy) to repair roofs, put on new roofs, complete electrical and plumbing work for our rebuild as well as many of our repairs. Especially with the financial troubles builders are facing in today’s economy, this has been especially helpful.
Our partnerships with faith based groups are our crowing achievement.
The Presbyterian Disaster Assistance and the Disaster Recovery Center of the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church and United Methodist Committee on Relief have funded our staff members for 2 years. They, along with United Church of Christ Disaster Ministries and Lutheran Disaster Response have provided volunteers and funds to repair and rebuild homes and lives. While working on homes, many of these volunteers have also ministered to the souls of our hurting clients, and provided emotional and spiritual support to our clients and staff as well.
The First Baptist Church of Clewiston, Calvary Baptist Church, Community Presbyterian Church of Clewiston, First United Methodist Churches of Moore haven and Clewiston, and Iglesia De Dios Pentecostal ME have all housed our volunteers as well as fed many of them and had them join in their worship services as well.
First United Methodist Churches of Clewiston and Moorehaven as well as Community Presbyterian Church of Clewiston have also funded some of our projects. In addition both the First Untied Methodist Church of Clewiston and Moorehaven gave CREW office Space when we first needed it.
Community Presbyterian Church of Clewiston also donated us the use of their shed to store our tools, donated furniture, appliance and materials.
Pastors and lay leaders from Community Presbyterian Church, First United Methodist Church of Clewiston and Moorehaven, Iglesia De Dios Pentecostal ME, First Baptist Church of Clewiston, Calvary Baptist Church have served on our board or our unmet needs committee and always volunteered whenever we asked.
Calvary Presbyterian Church in Coconut Beach, Florida sends money to us each month to help defray the cost of our cell phones.
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, United Church of Christ, United Methodist Committee on Relief, Lutheran Disaster Response and other faith based organizations send us volunteers on a regular basis.
Catholic Charities has also provided immeasurable assistance to our clients as well, and their staff members are part of our unmet needs committee. In addition, they paid CREW over $4000 for our executive director’s participation in the National Pilot Project which gave direct assistance to several of our clients. Their staff members have served on our LTRO and Unmet needs committees.
Church World Service provided us with start up funds. United Church of Christ has given us funding for dozens of projects.
Volunteers often donate money while they are here, and several churches and other agencies and individuals read about us or hear about us and donate money or volunteer.
We have partnered with many community agencies as well.
Such as The Empowerment Alliance of Southwest Florida, shared staff with them, and given office space to one of their employees who provided credit counseling and helps low income families finance new homes responsibly. They have also funded projects for many of our clients. They also have provided credit counseling and workshops for first time home buyers to clients we have identified have that need.
We also work with the United Way of Lee Hendry and Glades. They have paid 50% of the salary/ benefit package for our Executive Director this year. In addition they have funded a small amount of direct assistance to clients. They have also given us use of our current office space, and through their 211 referral sources we have been able to goods and services to our clients.
Our partnership with Volunteer Florida Foundation has funded our FEMA Close out Project, our Mitigation Program, and provided direct assistance to those in FEMA housing. It has also provided invaluable training to several of our staff members.
We also assist the Homeless Coalition of Hendry and Glades, Family Services Network and the Emergency Services Committee by attending and participating in their meetings to help improve the life of our clients through out our two rural communities.
American Red Cross (local and national) have helped our clients immeasurably, giving donated supplies after Tropical Storm Ernesto, serving on our unmet needs committee, and providing funding to clients through their Means to Recovery program.
Centro Campesino has made repairs that were storm related and non-storm related for several of our clients which we referred to them. This year they did $16,647.00 worth of home repairs for our clients!
We also have partnered with government agencies as well.
The City of Clewiston staff assisted us in many ways, teaching us building codes, assisting with uncooperative clients, and more.
Hendry and Glades County SHIP program, USDA Rural Development, Emergency Management of Hendry County and Emergency Management of Glades County are also partners. Two of our staff are CERT trained and will assist Hendry County in the event of a disaster. Our Executive Director serves on the Glades County Affordable Housing Advisory Committee. The local workforce development board through their NEG grants funded case managers for part of the year as well.
Financially, CREW has done wonders.
For 2008, CREW brought in $429,982.44 in cash through grants and donations and $191.908.46 in in-kind donations. We spent $463,926.84. This amount includes $161,988.08 in wages, tips and other compensation, payroll tax expenses were $9,825.92. $254283.44 was spent on contractors, materials and other direct assistance to clients. $20105.15 was spent on mileage for our staff members in order to cover our three-county area.
In addition we have received in kind funds, in the amount of $191,908.46 for the year.
One of our greatest accomplishments has been our ability to keep our administrative costs at 5% of our total budget.
In-kind donations 2008 $208,555.46
Our partnerships with faith based groups are our crowing achievement.
The Presbyterian Disaster Assistance and the Disaster Recovery Center of the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church and United Methodist Committee on Relief have funded our staff members for 2 years. They, along with United Church of Christ Disaster Ministries and Lutheran Disaster Response have provided volunteers and funds to repair and rebuild homes and lives. While working on homes, many of these volunteers have also ministered to the souls of our hurting clients, and provided emotional and spiritual support to our clients and staff as well.
The First Baptist Church of Clewiston, Calvary Baptist Church, Community Presbyterian Church of Clewiston, First United Methodist Churches of Moore haven and Clewiston, and Iglesia De Dios Pentecostal ME have all housed our volunteers as well as fed many of them and had them join in their worship services as well.
First United Methodist Churches of Clewiston and Moorehaven as well as Community Presbyterian Church of Clewiston have also funded some of our projects. In addition both the First Untied Methodist Church of Clewiston and Moorehaven gave CREW office Space when we first needed it.
Community Presbyterian Church of Clewiston also donated us the use of their shed to store our tools, donated furniture, appliance and materials.
Pastors and lay leaders from Community Presbyterian Church, First United Methodist Church of Clewiston and Moorehaven, Iglesia De Dios Pentecostal ME, First Baptist Church of Clewiston, Calvary Baptist Church have served on our board or our unmet needs committee and always volunteered whenever we asked.
Calvary Presbyterian Church in Coconut Beach, Florida sends money to us each month to help defray the cost of our cell phones.
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, United Church of Christ, United Methodist Committee on Relief, Lutheran Disaster Response and other faith based organizations send us volunteers on a regular basis.
Catholic Charities has also provided immeasurable assistance to our clients as well, and their staff members are part of our unmet needs committee. In addition, they paid CREW over $4000 for our executive director’s participation in the National Pilot Project which gave direct assistance to several of our clients. Their staff members have served on our LTRO and Unmet needs committees.
Church World Service provided us with start up funds. United Church of Christ has given us funding for dozens of projects.
Volunteers often donate money while they are here, and several churches and other agencies and individuals read about us or hear about us and donate money or volunteer.
We have partnered with many community agencies as well.
Such as The Empowerment Alliance of Southwest Florida, shared staff with them, and given office space to one of their employees who provided credit counseling and helps low income families finance new homes responsibly. They have also funded projects for many of our clients. They also have provided credit counseling and workshops for first time home buyers to clients we have identified have that need.
We also work with the United Way of Lee Hendry and Glades. They have paid 50% of the salary/ benefit package for our Executive Director this year. In addition they have funded a small amount of direct assistance to clients. They have also given us use of our current office space, and through their 211 referral sources we have been able to goods and services to our clients.
Our partnership with Volunteer Florida Foundation has funded our FEMA Close out Project, our Mitigation Program, and provided direct assistance to those in FEMA housing. It has also provided invaluable training to several of our staff members.
We also assist the Homeless Coalition of Hendry and Glades, Family Services Network and the Emergency Services Committee by attending and participating in their meetings to help improve the life of our clients through out our two rural communities.
American Red Cross (local and national) have helped our clients immeasurably, giving donated supplies after Tropical Storm Ernesto, serving on our unmet needs committee, and providing funding to clients through their Means to Recovery program.
Centro Campesino has made repairs that were storm related and non-storm related for several of our clients which we referred to them. This year they did $16,647.00 worth of home repairs for our clients!
We also have partnered with government agencies as well.
The City of Clewiston staff assisted us in many ways, teaching us building codes, assisting with uncooperative clients, and more.
Hendry and Glades County SHIP program, USDA Rural Development, Emergency Management of Hendry County and Emergency Management of Glades County are also partners. Two of our staff are CERT trained and will assist Hendry County in the event of a disaster. Our Executive Director serves on the Glades County Affordable Housing Advisory Committee. The local workforce development board through their NEG grants funded case managers for part of the year as well.
Financially, CREW has done wonders.
For 2008, CREW brought in $429,982.44 in cash through grants and donations and $191.908.46 in in-kind donations. We spent $463,926.84. This amount includes $161,988.08 in wages, tips and other compensation, payroll tax expenses were $9,825.92. $254283.44 was spent on contractors, materials and other direct assistance to clients. $20105.15 was spent on mileage for our staff members in order to cover our three-county area.
In addition we have received in kind funds, in the amount of $191,908.46 for the year.
One of our greatest accomplishments has been our ability to keep our administrative costs at 5% of our total budget.
In-kind donations 2008 $208,555.46
In comparison here’s our previous years income
2007 $576,005.54
2006 $66,310.68
2007 $576,005.54
2006 $66,310.68
In-kind donations 2007 $379,819.50
We have been blessed to be able to help so many and find so many wonderful people and agencies willing to give their money and time to make our community better. We still have a lot to go. Here is an outline of what we have ahead of us.
Remaining Needs
As of the end of the year we have quite a few remaining needs, from 2005-2008 storms.
1. We have recently agreed and received funding to assess the needs that were left unmet by the LTRO in Okeechobee from those affected by 2005 storms.
2. Client needs
a. Need funding and volunteers for the following cases:
1) Baseboard and vinyl flooring, bathtub plumbing
2) Roof repair, ceiling repair
3) Roof, windows, flooring underlay, paneling
4) Floor tile, windows ceiling
5) Roof, flooring underlay, ceiling
6) Electrical repairs, roof, ceiling, flooring underlay, screen
7) Roof, windows, bathroom ceiling, flooring and walls
8) Roof, windows, flooring underlay
9) Roof, ceiling, and flooring
10) 4 windows, electrical and floor
11) 6 windows
12) Interior priming, painting and replacing floor tiles
13) Skirting repair,2 doors, 2 windows, ceiling, floor, roof
14) Move, set and up and skirting of FEMA purchased home
15) Baseboard and vinyl flooring, plumbing
16) Moving and placing FEMA purchased home
17) Roof repair, ceiling repair
18) Roof, windows, flooring underlay, paneling
19) Floor tile, 2 windows, ceiling
20) Roof, flooring underlay, ceiling
21) Electrical repairs
22) Roof, windows, bathroom, ceiling, flooring and walls
23) Roof, windows, flooring underlay
b. Have funding but need volunteers for:
1) Drywall repairs in 2 bedrooms and a bathroom
2) Finishing touches on two roofs started by other volunteers
3) Drywall, door skirting
4) Roof repair
5) Shingle roof, front door, skirting, level mobile home
6) Reroof, windows, drywall, entire kitchen, flooring, AC unit
7) Drywall
8) Roof and doors
9) Drywall repairs
10) Doors, drywall, windows, skirting, roof repair
11) Drywall repairs, cabinets replaced
12) Demolish and remove mobile home
13) Skirting, demolition f damaged mobile home
14) 2 windows
15) Minor roof repair
16) Ceiling repair
17) Fix leak
18) Roof repairs, drywall, skirting
19) Minor drywall repair
20) Replace doors and skirting
21) Inside electrical repairs, skirting, drywall, roof repair
22) Plumbing
23) Paint, replace doors
24) Insulation under mobile homes, skirting, drywall
In addition, funding for administrative costs, such as phone bills, internet service, mileage, office supplies, accounting, insurance, and fax is needed. Our administrative costs are very low, as we pay no rent or only $75.00 in utilities thanks to the United Way of Lee, Hendry and Glades and Child Care of Southwest Florida. Calvary Presbyterian Church helps off set these costs by sending us $75.00 or more a month to offset the cost of our cellular phones.
It would be also wonderful if one day we maid enough to provide health insurance to our employees. We need to stay intact after all Disaster victims are helped with a skeleton crew (2) to continue to provide Hurricane Awareness and Prevention as well as to provide assistance to small scale disasters such as flooding and house fires. Furthermore, we want to be ready to respond should another major disaster affect our area.
Disaster recovery still continuing!
Sorry I have not been keeping the blog posting up, we have been scrambling looking for funds to help our our disaster victims, still recovering from Hurricane Wilma and Tropical Storm Fay. I hope to really try to keep the post up to date. I like to use it to show off the wonderful volunteers that we keep having, especially those that come from a long way from home, but it is neat to show off the ones we have from here at home as well.
At the same time they were here, we also had the nicest couple here (for their third week) from Jerry and Linda Neth's from Pennsylvania. They are retired and love doing this kind of work, and have shown they are quite skillled at it as well. Jerry and Linda are still here, we are trying to convince them to move here but have not had any luck yet. They were joined by yet another couple Hilda and Elton Johnson's. Hilda an Elton came fo
r their third time (Hilda helped us in the office) from Virginia. They worked on skirting, dry wall, built shelves for us in our new storage shed and installed windows.However, a great note about Hilda, is that she is not only a terrific volunteer, but according to this writer, who got to pick her brain quite a bit, she has some right on political views. They left with a promise to come back very soon!
We just had a great group here from St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Murfreesboro, TN! They were wonderful, and did lots of great work for us. Paul, their fearless leader, looks a lot 
more professional on their churches website (you can check out their churches link by clicking it above), and he has been all over the place doing m
ission work, but has traveled here to our great state several times, and we were blessed each time, however, this is the first time he darkened the door of our great town. While here, he and his gang (Bill, William and Jeff) did work in Montura and Moorehaven, helping us finish some minor details on one job, repaired three roofs, completly replaced one roof before moving on to replacing ceilings. Jeff also helped with comic releif for not just the group, but this gal too!
more professional on their churches website (you can check out their churches link by clicking it above), and he has been all over the place doing m
ission work, but has traveled here to our great state several times, and we were blessed each time, however, this is the first time he darkened the door of our great town. While here, he and his gang (Bill, William and Jeff) did work in Montura and Moorehaven, helping us finish some minor details on one job, repaired three roofs, completly replaced one roof before moving on to replacing ceilings. Jeff also helped with comic releif for not just the group, but this gal too!You think that is enough goodness pouring out of these 4 men for one week, but no wait, there is more! While here they participated in our local United Methodist Women's Cake Acution to benefit the women's favorite missions, and payed bocho money for a choclate cake that they then offered to share with me, what incredible guys (have I blow enough smoke yet?) LOL! Anyway, they were a fun group with a great sense of humor.
At the same time they were here, we also had the nicest couple here (for their third week) from Jerry and Linda Neth's from Pennsylvania. They are retired and love doing this kind of work, and have shown they are quite skillled at it as well. Jerry and Linda are still here, we are trying to convince them to move here but have not had any luck yet. They were joined by yet another couple Hilda and Elton Johnson's. Hilda an Elton came fo
r their third time (Hilda helped us in the office) from Virginia. They worked on skirting, dry wall, built shelves for us in our new storage shed and installed windows.However, a great note about Hilda, is that she is not only a terrific volunteer, but according to this writer, who got to pick her brain quite a bit, she has some right on political views. They left with a promise to come back very soon!Stayed tuned for more news because Jerry and Linda are still here and we have more volunteers scheduled to come not only in this month but in March as well.
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