Wednesday, June 09, 2010
CREW greive's the loss of Marcus Hepburn
CREW has closed it's doors, but remains ready to reactivate should another storm hit our area, it's board members and previous staff mourn the loss of a great contributor to Florida's Disaster Recovery efforts over the past several years.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
CREW's September Report
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
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
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.
Friday, June 06, 2008
May Monthly Report
Hurricane season has begun! May flowers bloomed, just as CREW has this month!
We continue to help the clients still struggling in FEMA trailers. We did attend public meeting with City, trailer park owners and residents living in FEMA trailers (most who do not have applications with CREW) and encouraged those residents to apply with us. Only 3 of these 21 families have come in to apply. The City has agreed to fund the three clients we had been discussing with them, paying the contractor directly. We are just waiting for this process to be completed.
Volunteers continue to be our greatest resource. On May 3, 2008, Eastlake United Methodist Church from Palm Harbor, Florida came and worked on tearing out some damaged vinyl flooring and replacing it. This group also repaired some drywall in the bathroom. The group consisted of 6 men and 1 woman. The group arrived on Friday night and stayed at the First United Methodist Church of Clewiston. They worked all day on Saturday and were able to complete the entire drywall repair and half of the flooring. The group ranged in age from 56 to 84. All were Caucasian except one male who is Indian. The group donated a total of 48 hours.
On May 21, 2008 we had two ladies from Largo, Florida come and help with finishing some of the drywall at Pamela Hopper’s home. These two ladies worked all day on Thursday and managed to get a lot of the finishing completed and another coat of compound spread on the drywall. These two ladies were both in their 50’s and were Caucasian. They were housed at the Calvary Baptist Church Parrish and were fed Wednesday night by the First United Methodist Church. These two ladies donated a total of 16 hours.
On May 22, 2008 CREW had its monthly Long Term Recovery Meeting and had 6 volunteers consisting of 3 men and 3 women attend. These volunteers gave an hour each of their time. They ranged in age from 24 to 62. The group was fed a meal by the Hendry Regional Medical Center. The group donated 6 total hours.
We had individual volunteer do 6 assessments for CREW he donated 3 hours on May 28, 2008 and 3 hours on May 29, 2008, for a total of 6 hours.
Total hours donated: 76 Total In Kind donations: $1425.00
Total in kind donated from the churches for meals and housing and meeting room: $256.00
As of May 31st, we have 72 cases that have been assigned to case mangers who have updated recovery plans, 61 of these are in Hendry County, 11 in Glades. 22 cases are assigned a case manager and are pending documentation from the client before they can be officially opened, 19 of these are in Hendry County, 2 in Glades.
We were able to successfully close 4 cases in Hendry County with all of the clients’ needs being met. There are no unassigned cases in either county. We have referred 13 cases to Centro Campesino this month, 10 from Hendry and 3 from Glades.
Total overall open cases: 72 Total pending documentation: 19
As for the Mitigation program, 78 homes have been mitigated. There are 14 clients in progress with our current contractor Alufab. Only 3 more clients are awaiting inspection reports from the state. A total of $208,894.40 has been spent in our effort to complete 100 homes in the Hendry and Glades County areas. There have been several instances where progress was stagnated and problems occurred. VFF will no longer coordinate the mitigation program, which results in a deadline of June 30, 2008 for all homes to be completed. The Department of Financial Services will be assuming all duties of the Mitigation Program therefore CREW does not know what new changes will come into affect. CREW will continue in its effort to mitigate 100 or more homes in the Hendry and Glades Counties.
Our LTRO (Long Term Recovery Organization) and Unmet Needs meeting is on the 4th Thursdays of the month. There were no new cases to present. We reviewed 35 cases, most of which we are either awaiting volunteers, funding or both. 4 cases were closed at this meeting.
Our Board of Directors meeting is on the Monday of the prior week. We did not meet this month, as we did not have quorum.
Grants were submitted to CVS and the Shell Foundation; one should not expect good results, but hope for them. Both of these agencies will usually only fund Global charities.
We also lost our web site this month. This happens as we don’t pay for it. Trish will look about this month and see about creating one on another free site, perhaps My Space, there is a great area for non-profits there.
Trish was re-elected to serve as an officer of Florida VOAD at the Governor’s Conference. All of the staff rolled up their sleeves and re-organized and inventoried the shed this month. Trish and Renee attended the 16th annual VOAD conference in Little Rock, Arkansas where they received training on a variety of issues related to our LTRO, as well as meeting contacts from which we can get more volunteers and possible sources of funding. They also attended the Florida Governor’s Hurricane Conference in Ft. Lauderdale the following week. Trish participated in the Untied Way’s Allocation process for Hendry and Glades Counties this month as well.
Our beginning balance this month was $55,880.07. We brought in $63,301.12 and spent $50,608.32. it should be noted however that these amounts have yet to be reconciled by accountant.
Balances for various accounts as of April 30th are as follows:
- $4,113.06 2nd annual fundraiser (all monies in, we can not revert to general)
- -$2,756.57 CRWRC (this needs to be zeroed out using general funds)
- $5,759.79 general funds
- $24,376.71 mitigation
- -$412.80 PDA Administrative funds (waiting on check)
- $1,719.80 PDA Volunteer Coordinator funds
- $51,921.25 UMCOR Clewiston
- $4,699.56 UMCOR Moorehaven
WE NEED VOLUNTEERS AND FUNDS!!!!
We need volunteers who can help repair homes, but also need volunteers to assist in the office, as well to help work booths at the upcoming fairs and festivals throughout Hendry and Glades Counties. We are currently in need of a shredder that can handle the amount of shredding necessary to keep our clients information confidential. We desperately need a shredder and a volunteer to help shred the backload of paperwork, since our shredder died.
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
Donations can be sent to 352 W. Arcade Ave., Clewiston, Florida 33440. We are a registered non-profit and donations are tax deductible. Call Renee to volunteer at (863) 983-2390.
Visit our blog site to learn more about what we are up to and to see pictures. http://huricanerecovery.blogspot.com/
Please feel free to check out our calendar of events to see when volunteers are coming and find out what our staff members are up to! http://calendar.msn.com/trishadamslcsw@hotmail.com
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Glades County Firefighter Rocks!
Local Forestry Firefighter Wins National Award
Glades County– Senior Ranger Danny Callahan has been honored for his distinguished service in wildland fire prevention. Callahan took home the 2007 Robert E. Browning Award, which is given by the US Forest Service Southern Region and is the only national award of its kind. The award is named for the late Robert E. Browning, who gave his life on Storm King Mountain in Colorado. Browning was one of 14 firefighters, and the only Southerner, killed during a blowup of the fire on July 6, 1994. This fire is considered to be one of the “greatest tragedies in the annals of firefighting.”
The Browning Award is given annually to the person who has done an outstanding job with prevention activities during the course of the year. “Danny is most deserving of this honor,” says Jim Rath, Okeechobee District Manager. “Danny shows exemplary leadership in promoting and developing community relationships. He also is a great leader in forging partnerships with other agencies to accomplish fire prevention efforts.”
Danny Callahan said, “I was shocked when I found out that I was nominated. I’m most grateful for this recognition, and I’d like to thank everyone for their support because this award belongs to the residents of Glades County. I really believe that fire prevention can save lives and homes.” Danny Callahan received a statue and a certificate in recognition of his achievement.
Picture: from Right to Left: Ira Jolly- Chief of Forest Protection, Danny Callahan- Glades County Senior Ranger, Jim Rath- Okeechobee District Manager & Tim Elder- Highlands/Glades Forest Area Supervisor
Anyone needing additional information may contact the local Division of Forestry at 772-260-0053
(St. Lucie, Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee Counties) 863-655-6407 (Highlands and Glades Counties).
Please visit our website at www.fl-dof.com
Glades County– Senior Ranger Danny Callahan has been honored for his distinguished service in wildland fire prevention. Callahan took home the 2007 Robert E. Browning Award, which is given by the US Forest Service Southern Region and is the only national award of its kind. The award is named for the late Robert E. Browning, who gave his life on Storm King Mountain in Colorado. Browning was one of 14 firefighters, and the only Southerner, killed during a blowup of the fire on July 6, 1994. This fire is considered to be one of the “greatest tragedies in the annals of firefighting.”
The Browning Award is given annually to the person who has done an outstanding job with prevention activities during the course of the year. “Danny is most deserving of this honor,” says Jim Rath, Okeechobee District Manager. “Danny shows exemplary leadership in promoting and developing community relationships. He also is a great leader in forging partnerships with other agencies to accomplish fire prevention efforts.”
Danny Callahan said, “I was shocked when I found out that I was nominated. I’m most grateful for this recognition, and I’d like to thank everyone for their support because this award belongs to the residents of Glades County. I really believe that fire prevention can save lives and homes.” Danny Callahan received a statue and a certificate in recognition of his achievement.
Picture: from Right to Left: Ira Jolly- Chief of Forest Protection, Danny Callahan- Glades County Senior Ranger, Jim Rath- Okeechobee District Manager & Tim Elder- Highlands/Glades Forest Area Supervisor
Anyone needing additional information may contact the local Division of Forestry at 772-260-0053
(St. Lucie, Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee Counties) 863-655-6407 (Highlands and Glades Counties).
Please visit our website at www.fl-dof.com
Friday, May 23, 2008
April Monthly Report
April showers brought new opportunities and the promise of a wonderful Spring and Summer.
Although we are no longer funded to help with the FEMA close out project, we have continued to help these clients. We are still trying to find funding for three clients we had hoped to get from the City but have been unable to do so. Board Members are following through with this with the City, and Trish is following up with FEMA.
On April 6, 2008, Amelia Charge United Methodist Church came from Amelia, Virginia to work on the rebuild for P. Hopper. This group hung all of the drywall in the house and donated $800.00 to pay someone to do the finish work on the drywall. This group also worked on repairing some ceiling drywall for B. Jarmillo, they replaced the trim throughout the living room, bedroom and hallway. This group also worked at B. West’s home laying carpet in her granddaughter’s room and trim work throughout the house. They also painted the ceilings and installed flooring in the bathroom. This group consisted of 23 adults ranging in age from 45 to 84. The group also had a volunteer who donated over 100 gallons of paint to CREW to use for two of these clients as well as any other clients who need the paint.
On April 19, 2008 we had 12 volunteers from VAMO United Methodist Church come from Sarasota, Florida, to work for R. Vega and finish up the ceiling repair that was needed. The group sent 4 volunteers to hang drywall for Mr. Vega and his family. Three other members of this group worked on tearing up damaged flooring and installing new flooring for B. Jarmillo. Four other members worked with CREW employees at the Sugar Festival Booth, helping to promote raffle tickets and hand out information. This group consisted of volunteers ranging in age from 52 to 78 years of age.
Also, on April 19, 2008 we had 3 local volunteers come and help with the Sugar Festival Booth. They worked all day helping to promote raffle tickets and hand out information. These volunteers ranged in age from 17 to 49.
On April 24, 2008 CREW had its 2nd Annual Fundraiser and had 6 local volunteers come and help with cooking, serving and clean up. These volunteers worked all day and were a great help in making the fundraiser the success that it was. This group ranged in age from 36 to 61 years of age.
Total hours donated: 1102 Total In Kind donations: $20,662.50
Total in kind donated from the churches for meals and housing and meeting room: $361.00
As of April 30th, 57 cases have been assigned to case managers. In Hendry County 47 cases have been assigned to case managers who have updated recovery plans in all of these cases. There are 17 cases assigned to a case manager that are pending documentation before they are officially opened. In Glades County, 10 cases have been assigned to case managers and 7 of these have updated recovery plans completed. There are 3 cases assigned to a case manager that are pending documentation before they are officially opened. We had no new cases this month, but expect new ones next month from Fairgrounds Mobile Home Park.
In April 11 cases were closed. Two were because all repairs were made. Two were because of failure of client to agree to complete plan. One was at the client’s request. One was due to damages not being disaster related. Another was referred to SHIP.
To date we have referred 8 of the open cases in Hendry County and 2 in Glades to Centro Campesino.
We currently has 2 full-time and 1 half-time case manager that are reviewing case information. Case managers are contacting clients to get needed documentation as quickly as possible.
We are currently in need of a shredder that can handle the amount of shredding necessary to keep our clients information confidential.
Total overall open cases: 67 Total pending documentation: 20
Reporting for the month of April there are a total of 102 clients entered into the Hurricane Relief Database. Of those 102 clients 66 are complete. There are 21clients in progress with our current contractor Alufab. Only 13 more clients are awaiting inspection reports. A total of $208,894.40 has been spent in our effort to complete 100 homes in the Hendry and Glades County areas. There have been several instances where progress was stagnated and problems occurred. VFF will no longer coordinate the mitigation program, which results in a deadline of June 30, 2008 for all homes to be completed. The Department of Financial Services will be assuming all duties of the Mitigation Program therefore CREW does not know what new changes will come into affect. CREW will continue in its effort to mitigate 100 or more homes in the Hendry and Glades Counties.
Now that the program will be ending soon there has not been much advertisement, but applications are still being accepted and clients are being made aware of changes in the program. All applications received will be placed in a pending file until further instruction is given about the Mitigation Program.
Our LTRO (Long Term Recovery Organization) and Unmet Needs meeting is on the 4th Thursdays of the month. We presented three new cases. We reviewed 33 cases, most of which we are either awaiting volunteers, funding or both. 11 cases were closed at this meeting.
Our Board of Directors meeting is on the Monday of the prior week. Both meetings are held at Hendry Regional Medical Center. This month we met and set prices for the tickets for the fundraiser.
Grants were submitted to Home Depot and Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church Storm Recovery Center. We heard back that we did not receive the Home Depot Grant or the grant from CRWRC, but we did receive the UMC grant which will fund a case manager through the end of the year, as well as fund the materials needed to complete three homes.
Trish did presentations about CREW to the United Methodist Women from the First United Methodist Church of Moorehaven this month, from which we received donations. She also attended planning sessions with The United Way of Lee, Hendry and Glades and a “Keys to Success” Seminar. Our staff worked a booth at the Sugar Festival, raising funds for the big fundraiser we held this month with donated items from Wal-Mart ($1000.00). Both Anthony and Trish participated in Conference Calls with Volunteer Florida Foundation regarding changes in the administration of the My Safe Florida Home Grant Funds. Trish also began negotiations with them regarding expanding this into the future year and possibly into Lee County. Trish also participated in conference call as part of the executive team of the Florida VOAD this month and will be running for office again for in May at the Governor’s Conference.
CREW held their yearly fundraiser this month, a bar-b-que and silent auction. We raised $4,113.06 (this is after costs of the fundraiser were taken out). We had several in kind donations such as 13 desserts for $130.00 and several silent auction items valued at $1,500.00. A to Z Discount Beverage donated $100.00 worth of sodas and water for the event. In addition, volunteers cooked and prepared the food for the event, helped with set up and clean up, and The First United Methodist Church of Clewiston donated space and facilities to pull off the event.
Our beginning balance this month was $79,318.87. We brought in $60,418.47 and spent $83,857.27. Our balance at the end of the month was $66,303.69. We have $10,423.62 in outstanding checks, leaving us with a balance of $55,880.07.
Balances for various accounts as of April 30th are as follows:
ü $124.06 2nd annual fundraiser (checks had not yet been deposited)
ü -$2,756.57 CRWRC (this needs to be zeroed out using general funds)
ü $5,510.45 general funds
ü $917.34 mitigation
ü $458.36 PDA Administrative funds
ü $1,894.01 PDA Volunteer Coordinator funds
ü $58,512.23 UMCOR Clewiston
ü $9,142.46 UMCOR Moorehaven
WE NEED VOLUNTEERS AND FUNDS!!!!
We need volunteers who can help repair homes, but also need volunteers to assist in the office, as well to help work booths at the upcoming fairs and festivals throughout Hendry and Glades Counties. We are currently in need of a shredder that can handle the amount of shredding necessary to keep our clients information confidential. We desperately need a shredder and a volunteer to help shred the backload of paperwork, since our shredder died.
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
Donations can be sent to 352 W. Arcade Ave., Clewiston, Florida 33440. We are a registered non-profit and donations are tax deductible. Call Renee to volunteer at (863) 983-2390.
Visit our blog site to learn more about what we are up to and to see pictures. http://huricanerecovery.blogspot.com/
Please feel free to check out our calendar of events to see when volunteers are coming and find out what our staff members are up to! http://calendar.msn.com/trishadamslcsw@hotmail.com
Although we are no longer funded to help with the FEMA close out project, we have continued to help these clients. We are still trying to find funding for three clients we had hoped to get from the City but have been unable to do so. Board Members are following through with this with the City, and Trish is following up with FEMA.
On April 6, 2008, Amelia Charge United Methodist Church came from Amelia, Virginia to work on the rebuild for P. Hopper. This group hung all of the drywall in the house and donated $800.00 to pay someone to do the finish work on the drywall. This group also worked on repairing some ceiling drywall for B. Jarmillo, they replaced the trim throughout the living room, bedroom and hallway. This group also worked at B. West’s home laying carpet in her granddaughter’s room and trim work throughout the house. They also painted the ceilings and installed flooring in the bathroom. This group consisted of 23 adults ranging in age from 45 to 84. The group also had a volunteer who donated over 100 gallons of paint to CREW to use for two of these clients as well as any other clients who need the paint.
On April 19, 2008 we had 12 volunteers from VAMO United Methodist Church come from Sarasota, Florida, to work for R. Vega and finish up the ceiling repair that was needed. The group sent 4 volunteers to hang drywall for Mr. Vega and his family. Three other members of this group worked on tearing up damaged flooring and installing new flooring for B. Jarmillo. Four other members worked with CREW employees at the Sugar Festival Booth, helping to promote raffle tickets and hand out information. This group consisted of volunteers ranging in age from 52 to 78 years of age.
Also, on April 19, 2008 we had 3 local volunteers come and help with the Sugar Festival Booth. They worked all day helping to promote raffle tickets and hand out information. These volunteers ranged in age from 17 to 49.
On April 24, 2008 CREW had its 2nd Annual Fundraiser and had 6 local volunteers come and help with cooking, serving and clean up. These volunteers worked all day and were a great help in making the fundraiser the success that it was. This group ranged in age from 36 to 61 years of age.
Total hours donated: 1102 Total In Kind donations: $20,662.50
Total in kind donated from the churches for meals and housing and meeting room: $361.00
As of April 30th, 57 cases have been assigned to case managers. In Hendry County 47 cases have been assigned to case managers who have updated recovery plans in all of these cases. There are 17 cases assigned to a case manager that are pending documentation before they are officially opened. In Glades County, 10 cases have been assigned to case managers and 7 of these have updated recovery plans completed. There are 3 cases assigned to a case manager that are pending documentation before they are officially opened. We had no new cases this month, but expect new ones next month from Fairgrounds Mobile Home Park.
In April 11 cases were closed. Two were because all repairs were made. Two were because of failure of client to agree to complete plan. One was at the client’s request. One was due to damages not being disaster related. Another was referred to SHIP.
To date we have referred 8 of the open cases in Hendry County and 2 in Glades to Centro Campesino.
We currently has 2 full-time and 1 half-time case manager that are reviewing case information. Case managers are contacting clients to get needed documentation as quickly as possible.
We are currently in need of a shredder that can handle the amount of shredding necessary to keep our clients information confidential.
Total overall open cases: 67 Total pending documentation: 20
Reporting for the month of April there are a total of 102 clients entered into the Hurricane Relief Database. Of those 102 clients 66 are complete. There are 21clients in progress with our current contractor Alufab. Only 13 more clients are awaiting inspection reports. A total of $208,894.40 has been spent in our effort to complete 100 homes in the Hendry and Glades County areas. There have been several instances where progress was stagnated and problems occurred. VFF will no longer coordinate the mitigation program, which results in a deadline of June 30, 2008 for all homes to be completed. The Department of Financial Services will be assuming all duties of the Mitigation Program therefore CREW does not know what new changes will come into affect. CREW will continue in its effort to mitigate 100 or more homes in the Hendry and Glades Counties.
Now that the program will be ending soon there has not been much advertisement, but applications are still being accepted and clients are being made aware of changes in the program. All applications received will be placed in a pending file until further instruction is given about the Mitigation Program.
Our LTRO (Long Term Recovery Organization) and Unmet Needs meeting is on the 4th Thursdays of the month. We presented three new cases. We reviewed 33 cases, most of which we are either awaiting volunteers, funding or both. 11 cases were closed at this meeting.
Our Board of Directors meeting is on the Monday of the prior week. Both meetings are held at Hendry Regional Medical Center. This month we met and set prices for the tickets for the fundraiser.
Grants were submitted to Home Depot and Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church Storm Recovery Center. We heard back that we did not receive the Home Depot Grant or the grant from CRWRC, but we did receive the UMC grant which will fund a case manager through the end of the year, as well as fund the materials needed to complete three homes.
Trish did presentations about CREW to the United Methodist Women from the First United Methodist Church of Moorehaven this month, from which we received donations. She also attended planning sessions with The United Way of Lee, Hendry and Glades and a “Keys to Success” Seminar. Our staff worked a booth at the Sugar Festival, raising funds for the big fundraiser we held this month with donated items from Wal-Mart ($1000.00). Both Anthony and Trish participated in Conference Calls with Volunteer Florida Foundation regarding changes in the administration of the My Safe Florida Home Grant Funds. Trish also began negotiations with them regarding expanding this into the future year and possibly into Lee County. Trish also participated in conference call as part of the executive team of the Florida VOAD this month and will be running for office again for in May at the Governor’s Conference.
CREW held their yearly fundraiser this month, a bar-b-que and silent auction. We raised $4,113.06 (this is after costs of the fundraiser were taken out). We had several in kind donations such as 13 desserts for $130.00 and several silent auction items valued at $1,500.00. A to Z Discount Beverage donated $100.00 worth of sodas and water for the event. In addition, volunteers cooked and prepared the food for the event, helped with set up and clean up, and The First United Methodist Church of Clewiston donated space and facilities to pull off the event.
Our beginning balance this month was $79,318.87. We brought in $60,418.47 and spent $83,857.27. Our balance at the end of the month was $66,303.69. We have $10,423.62 in outstanding checks, leaving us with a balance of $55,880.07.
Balances for various accounts as of April 30th are as follows:
ü $124.06 2nd annual fundraiser (checks had not yet been deposited)
ü -$2,756.57 CRWRC (this needs to be zeroed out using general funds)
ü $5,510.45 general funds
ü $917.34 mitigation
ü $458.36 PDA Administrative funds
ü $1,894.01 PDA Volunteer Coordinator funds
ü $58,512.23 UMCOR Clewiston
ü $9,142.46 UMCOR Moorehaven
WE NEED VOLUNTEERS AND FUNDS!!!!
We need volunteers who can help repair homes, but also need volunteers to assist in the office, as well to help work booths at the upcoming fairs and festivals throughout Hendry and Glades Counties. We are currently in need of a shredder that can handle the amount of shredding necessary to keep our clients information confidential. We desperately need a shredder and a volunteer to help shred the backload of paperwork, since our shredder died.
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
Donations can be sent to 352 W. Arcade Ave., Clewiston, Florida 33440. We are a registered non-profit and donations are tax deductible. Call Renee to volunteer at (863) 983-2390.
Visit our blog site to learn more about what we are up to and to see pictures. http://huricanerecovery.blogspot.com/
Please feel free to check out our calendar of events to see when volunteers are coming and find out what our staff members are up to! http://calendar.msn.com/trishadamslcsw@hotmail.com
Monday, April 14, 2008
Quarterly Report for CREW
SUMMARY
v We said good bye to 3 staff members who we lost funding for this quarter
v Board elections were held and CREW has a new Board of Directors
v Grants ending
v In-kind material donations, meals and housing totaling $3,137
v Volunteer hours donated totaling $84,023.47
v Mitigation entered 100 clients eligible for services
v Met with new County Building Inspector
v Build Your Mission training put on by Volunteer Florida Foundation and the Florida Institute of Government
v Love Rocks fundraiser for Untied Way in Labelle at the Barron House
RESULTS
Staff changes: We have said good bye to Amanda, our part time case manger, she continues her work with The Empowerment Alliance of South West Florida. In addition, our Executive Director has gone to part time also working part time for The United Way of Lee, Hendry and Glades, although so far still spends 90% of her time dedicated to CREW.
Pastor Thom Street of First United Methodist Church in Moorehaven is our new Board President. He has formerly served as our Glades County Representative. He also oversees the Glades county part of our UMCOR funds. Pastor Angel Ramos of the Community Presbyterian Church is our new Vice President. He previously served as our President. He also represents us and assists us with the funds we receive from PDA. Scott Jones, a civil engineer for Johnson and Prewitt continues to serve as our Treasurer. We welcome Sarah Hammock, who has a degree in Accounting and will be running the new Glades County First Bank when it opens will serve as our Secretary. We also welcome Craig Cudworth, CEO of Hendry Regional Medical Center to our Board as well. He brings a wealth of experience to the table. We are sorry to say good bye to Pastor David McClusky, who in addition to being the new pastor at Calvary Baptist in Clewiston, also serves as the education coordinator for Hendry Regional Medical Center.
The partnership between Means to Recovery (Red Cross) has come to a close. The Red Cross has directly assisted 23 of clients for a total of $203,060.20. One of our UMCOR/Florida Conference of United Methodist Church Storm Recovery grants has come to a close.
Since March of last year, C.R.E.W. has been working with FEMA, Hendry County, and the City of Clewiston to find suitable housing solutions for FEMA clients still housed in FEMA units as of April 24, 2004. I felt it necessary to note the following totals to show how many different agencies have contributed to families in FEMA trailer that are working with CREW. These numbers represent goods and services paid for by these agencies for direct assistance to the families in an effort to move from FEMA temporary housing to permanent solutions. Note these amounts do not include money for staff or costs of case managing all these cases. The money noted below is only for direct good and services to provide permanent housing solcutions.
Hendry County $318,842.77 Glades $6862.57
v Red Cross Means to Recovery Program $156,492.58
v CRWRC $60,692.21 $4023.01
v UCC $6,222.50 $900
v VFF $49,155.39
v Rotary $9,233.86
v Catholic Charities $4472.99 $1789.56
v UMCOR $7776.38
v Empowerment Alliance $4750.80
v Good Shepherd Lutheran $2,750.00
v NFL/United Way $15,242.11
v Grace United Methodist Church $200
v First United Methodist Church of Clewiston $778.95
v Other private donors $1075.00
v United Way of Lee Hendry and Glades $150
This month we met with Hendry County’s new building inspector, Bob Ott. It was wonderful to meet him and he provided CREW with some great resources, and we look forward to working with him this year. CREW participated in many community events including Build Your Mission training put on by Volunteer Florida Foundation and the Florida Institute of Government, as well as staff meetings at the United Way in Ft. Myers. Trish assisted the United Way booth and provided them with CREW Flyers at the Swamp Cabbage Festival. Trish also submitted a grant request for $5000 to The Home Depot. Hilda attended the Small Business forum where owners were to discuss commercial insurance and the nuts and bolts of it hosted by Regional Director of the Florida Department of Financial Services, Mr. John Fischer. Trish also participated in Conference calls with VFF and Florida VOAD. Trish picked up donated mattress and box spring this month from a local “snow bird” couple that is old friends of CREW. Trish also assisted in preparation for and implementation of the Love Rocks fundraiser for Untied Way in Labelle at the Barron House, and donated left over orange juice from the event to the local First United Methodist Church in Clewiston. CREW presented 14 new cases, and provided updates on 33 cases at our Unmet Needs Meeting. We have continued to work with the Family Services Network for our two counties. This month, our Director and shared employee with United Way met with First United Methodist Church in Moorehaven and a representative of Harry Chapin Food Bank to see how we could help those needing food in Glades County and to discuss the possibility of expanding the churches current program. Our Director also did two presentations for the Southwest District of the United Methodist Women about CREW and raised $175.00 in doing so. Our director also met with Susan J. Meister, of Gulf Coast Communications for UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief). She has been writing for the agencies newsletter Bright Spots about the damage from Katrina and Rita, but came and interviewed us and many of our clients and we look forward to reading her article on http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/work/emergencies/ongoing/hurricane2005/brightspots/. Our director also met with CRWRC (Christian Reformed World Relief Church) volunteers who are working in Belle Glade and Pahokee, for a neighboring LTRO, this month for dinner for which the First United Methodist of Church of Clewiston hosted them. Furthermore, our director served as a volunteer for the Homeless Coalition, assisting them in completing Point- In-Time surveys on the homeless with the Hendry County SHIP coordinator and Empowerment Alliance of SW Florida staff. Trish and Renee attended the Disaster Donations Management Training, Florida VOAD Meeting and ESF 15 Coordinators Meeting in Tallahassee this month. Trish, along with the other officers of the Florida VOAD received a plaque of appreciate from Alex Amparo, Director of Emergency Management from Volunteer Florida and the State Emergency Response Team (SERT). While their, Trish was also able to present some appreciation awards that we have been holding on to for a while to Danielle Kearney from Lutheran Disaster Resources Reverend Karen Thomas from the United Church of Christ. During this time, back in Clewiston, Imelda attended the local Family Services Network meeting and Anthony traveled to Ft. Myers to attend a meeting for agencies requesting funding from the United Way. Trish also attended a United Way of Lee, Hendry and Glades Board Meeting, the Hendry County Emergency Services Council, and the Hendry Glades Homeless Coalition meetings this month. Trish served as a volunteer serving breakfast to the Homeless Coalition’s “Breakfast with the Easter Bunny” fundraiser. Trish also attended local Democrats monthly meeting and passed out flyers for CREW’s fundraiser. In addition she met with Marvin Hammentree the Disaster Coordinator from the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church and Bill Roy and Gricel Hernandez, Disaster Recovery Representatives from the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. We toured three homes that have recently had volunteers work and they were able to meet the homeowners. The First United Methodist Church of Clewiston also hosted them for dinner when they came for an in kind donation of $21.00. Gricel Hernandez, Disaster Recovery Representative from the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church has been here 3 days a week since the beginning of the month helping our with case management. Trish has been hosting her at her house providing her place to sleep to save the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church’s money, as well as First United Methodist Church of Clewiston has been feeding her each Wednesday night for an in-kind of $21 for the meals, and approximately $100 for shelter. Trish and Renee also attended an event for individuals who donate to the United Way through payroll deduction, of which we both do. This is the first time CREW has been included as we had not prior been contributing though payroll deduction.
Trish hosted the St. Thomas United Methodist Church from Manassas Virginia’s volunteer group for dinner at her house and Chuck and his Wife hosted a fish fry for the group at the First United Methodist Church in Clewiston. This was their fourth trip to Clewiston to help repair homes.
4481.25 volunteer hours were clocked this quarter for an in-kind donation of $84023.44
Total cases 773 includes open, closed unassigned and referrals Total open cases 117
79 clients have been served in the months of January, February and March. We opened 8 new cases this quarter, completed and updated 71 recovery plans, and 8 more are pending documentation from client before they can be opened. For statistical information, that is requested note that:
v 38 are female.
v 41 are male
v 40 are Hispanic
v 27 are African American
v 12 are Caucasian
v 5 fall within ages of 20-29
v 13 fall within ages of 30-39
v 19 fall within ages of 40-49
v 22 fall within ages of 50-59
v 9 fall within ages of 60-69
v 8 fall within ages of 70-79
v 2 fall within ages of 80-89
42 cases were closed this month.
v 27 female
v 15 male
v 16 Hispanic
v 15 African American
v 11 Caucasian
v 9 fall within ages of 30-39
v 11 fall within ages of 40-49
v 12 fall within ages of 50-59
v 7 fall within ages of 60-69
v 3 fall with ages of 70-79
v 6 were referred to another agency
v 24 had needs met by CREW
v 11 refused services
v 1 had needs met by themselves
WORK DONE BY VOLUNTEERS
Two individual Baptist volunteers from Virginia the week of February 1, 2008 through February 7, 2008 come and help make some repairs to M. G. with drywall, installing doors, and windows, working in the office to help with some filing and general office duties. They stayed in their RV at the Wayside Park owned by Hendry County. The assisted with 65 hours for a total in kind donation of $1202.50. The First United Methodist Church of Clewiston provided two meals for this group for a total in kind donation of $14.00.
On February 18, 2008 we had a volunteer donate 2.75 hours for a total in kind donation of $51.56. This volunteer is from the New Harvest Pentecostal Church. He worked on laying on the stakes for the pad for P. H.
We have also been blessed with the assistance from the CRWRC who has a contingent of volunteers in Palm Beach County who have sent some of the extra volunteers to help us with our repairs. We had six volunteers come and help on three homes. They worked on flooring and completed the repairs for I. F., they completed a roof repair and drywall, a sink repair and countertop for B. G., this group did drywall, molding and a roof vent repairs. They donated a total of 553 hours for an in kind donation of $10,368.75.
CRWRC has also sent a group of four volunteers for the week of February 25, 2008 through February 29, 2008, they have worked a total of 56 hours for a total in kind donation of $1050.00, and this group has worked on installing screens for E. Dunkley and replacing drywall for C. K. This group will also be working for the next two weeks on several other projects.
Manassas St. Thomas United Methodist Church from Virginia sent 23 volunteers this time to help with the house that we are currently building for P. H. This group was so large that we split them in to two groups. One group worked on the house, framing and sheathing, they have installed the trusses and will possibly be working on installing the windows and doors by Friday. The other half of this group have been working at A. B., replacing the roof and repairing the siding and skirting. This group stayed at the First United Methodist Church of Clewiston. The Methodist Church provided a meal as well. The Community Presbyterian Church also provided a meal while the group was here. Chuck and Sally Hager provided a meal on Tuesday for the group. This group worked a total of 1157.5 hours for a total in kind donation of $21703.10. The meals provided total an in kind donation of $630.00. The housing totals an in kind donation of $460.00. This group donated a total of $200.00 cash to CREW as well.
We have also helped CRWRC keep some volunteers who are working in Palm Beach County busy for this month. We had a group of 4 volunteers 3 men and 1 woman, come and work at B. W.’s house installing and finishing drywall throughout the house. This group of volunteers was from various places (Kansas, Ontario and Michigan). This group also worked at E. D. installing some new screens on the windows, for C. K. repairing a leaking roof and repairing some interior drywall. They also completed the ceiling drywall repair and painting for A.B., they relocated some insulation for R. W. in the attic and repaired and painted some drywall for D. C. This group worked a total of 252 hours for an in kind donation of $4725.00. This group worked here for three weeks (Feb. 23-March 15).
On March 1, 2008 St. Luke Lutheran Church sent a group of 8 male volunteers. This group of highly skilled men worked on the house we are building for P. H. They completed framing, sheeting the roof, adding shingles and completing siding on the entire house. They also installed 9 windows and the 2 exterior doors. This group contributed a total of 647 hours for an in kind donation of $12131.25. They were hosted by the Community Presbyterian Church who also fed the group for an in kind donation of $56.00. The First United Methodist Church also fed this group for an in kind donation of $56.00.
On March 8, 2008 Lutheran Laymen’s League came from North Dakota to work on the rebuild, unfortunately this did not happen due to contractors not passing inspections on their work. So, we had this group work on four other projects. This group consisted of 6 men and 1 woman. The group began working at Brenda West’s home tearing out old flooring and installing new underlay, they also installed new drywall on the ceiling throughout the house; they also sent a few to work on flooring underlay for R. V. The group sent a couple of the group to tie up some loose ends for L. P. to help get a final inspection to pass, and then went to work at B. J.’s house, installing new cabinets and replacing drywall in the ceiling there as well. This group donated a total of 591 hours for an in kind donation of $11081.25. They were hosted by the First Baptist Church and First United Methodist Church fed the group one night for an in kind donation of $49.00. The Community Presbyterian Church also fed this group for an in kind donation of $49.00.
CRWRC sent another group the week of March 17 – March 19. The group consisted of 2 men and 2 women. The group worked finishing drywall and painting for B. J. This group was also from several different places (Ontario, Michigan and Colorado). They worked a total of 56 hours for an in kind donation of $1050.00.
On March 15, 2008 Covenant United Methodist Church sent a group of 9 volunteers from Port Orange, Florida. This group was hoping to work on the rebuild; unfortunately this did not work out again, due to contractors failing inspections. We put the group in to complete the ceiling repairs and painting for B. W., They worked all week and have completed all the drywall repairs and painting. They worked a total of 349 hours for an in kind donation of $6543.75. This group was hosted by First United Methodist Church of Clewiston, who also fed them on two different occasions for an in kind donation of $98.00. The group consisted of 5 men, 3 women, and 1 youth.
CLIENT STORIES
One of our biggest undertakings this quarter was our 2nd rebuild. We are doing this for Pam. Pam is a 53 year old woman who works for Southern Gardens and has been there many years. She also does some cleaning for extra money. In addition to all this, she volunteers at local agencies regularly. Hurricane Wilma picked up Pam's mobile home and twisted it. Pam was inside the home during the storm and began to screw the wall back in as the storm was barreling down and ripping her home apart. After the Storm, she was told to leave, but she had no where to go, so she stayed where she was. Just prior to the storm, her insurance company cancelled her policy, because she failed to have "hand rails" on her porch. FEMA gave her $2600.00. She used the money to repair the water system and set the trailer back on the blocks. Pam has multiple medical problems, and the mold in her home was adding to her issues. Only one room in the trailer was livable, so she moved all her belongings into that one room. She has been living, eating and sleeping in her living room ever since. CREW received funds from CRWRC, UMCOR and is still raising funds to rebuild this home. The concrete slab was poured and then volunteers began working on it from the St. Thomas United Methodist Church group this in February. More volunteers worked on it throughout the quarter and we hope to have it completed soon.
Brenda is 57 year old white single mother a single mom raising her three bi-racial children as well as two of her grandchildren. Brenda’s trailer was severely damaged by Hurricane Wilma and the $2000.00 she received from FEMA was not enough. She is a seasonal farm worker and is very low income. The remaining repairs are about $5590.00, we received funds from the local Rotary to hire Bryant Roofing to come and repair her roof, volunteers from Covenant United Methodist Church came and repaired interior damage, walls, floors, ceilings, removing mildew and painting with funds donated by the Rotary and Catholic Charities.
Another client helped was Brenda, an African American 57 year old female who has lived in Clewiston over 34 years with her family. She lives with her daughter and son-in-law. She has worked in the Bakery in Wal-mart for the past 8 years. Hurricane Wilma destroyed her roof, inside ceiling, floors, 2 doors, and 3 windows. She had no home insurance when the storm hit as she could not afford it. She applied with FEMA who gave her $4000 which she used to repair her roof, generator and buy food. We sent volunteers several volunteer groups including Covenant United Methodist Church this quarter to help them and bought the $1600 in materials needed.
My heart was truly overwhelmed when CREW received the following thank you letter from Anna. Anna is a 40 year old Mexican woman that lives with her disabled cancer stricken husband and three children. Their home was severely damaged, more than the $600 they received from FEMA could address. They needed a new roof, new siding, flooring window and skirting replacement. Volunteers from CRWRC and St. Thomas Methodist Church in Manassas, Virginia came and repaired her home with donated funds from CRWRC and other sources. Here is the letter she wrote in response to the work our volunteers did. I also included pictures of the volunteers working on her home.
To whom it may Concern,
I'm writing this letter today in gratitude. Words cannot express what appreciation my heart fills in this moment. Everyone of us works towards a single goal in life, but as parents, we work mostly to provide a roof over the heads of members of our family. For years I have done just that! Work, work, work to maintain our home. Then devastation appeared. Hurricane Wilma came through our town and destroyed what peace we had. I came home that October and felt like my dream had been shattered. My roof was missing. Most of what I worked so hard for was destroyed. Still, my family and I tried to pick up the pieces and continue on with life. We did as much repairs as we could do, we were trying to save money so we could hire professionals. As the saying goes, "When it rains, it pours!" That's exactly how it seemed. On January 3rd 2007 my husband and I received the news that he had cancer. Suddenly there was doctor visits, hospital visits and specialists to see! Slowly what money we had saved to fix our home was spent to take care of my husband. My husband made it, he beat the cancer. Our roof was there but it failed to perform its duty. With no money to fix it, I turned to CREW. I explained my situation and then waited for an answer. The one I got was completely unexpected. Not only would they fix my roof but it would be at no cost to me. What a blessing!! Things were starting to look up. March of 2008, volunteers from CREW showed up at my house with supplies in hand. There it began, they started fixing my roof. More surprise was when they asked to come inside to see the repaired needed there. They fixed walls, windows and doors! They did it all. I just wanted to write this letter and say thank you. Thank you for repairing the roof! Thank you for fixing the floor. Thank you for repairing the walls and windows. Thank you for repairing the doors in our house. But mostly thank you for repairing my Dream! You gave me back what the hurricane took away. I thank CREW and those who volunteered for CREW. I don't know what I would have done without you. You are all angels!
God Bless you, Anna and Family
v We said good bye to 3 staff members who we lost funding for this quarter
v Board elections were held and CREW has a new Board of Directors
v Grants ending
v In-kind material donations, meals and housing totaling $3,137
v Volunteer hours donated totaling $84,023.47
v Mitigation entered 100 clients eligible for services
v Met with new County Building Inspector
v Build Your Mission training put on by Volunteer Florida Foundation and the Florida Institute of Government
v Love Rocks fundraiser for Untied Way in Labelle at the Barron House
RESULTS
Staff changes: We have said good bye to Amanda, our part time case manger, she continues her work with The Empowerment Alliance of South West Florida. In addition, our Executive Director has gone to part time also working part time for The United Way of Lee, Hendry and Glades, although so far still spends 90% of her time dedicated to CREW.
Pastor Thom Street of First United Methodist Church in Moorehaven is our new Board President. He has formerly served as our Glades County Representative. He also oversees the Glades county part of our UMCOR funds. Pastor Angel Ramos of the Community Presbyterian Church is our new Vice President. He previously served as our President. He also represents us and assists us with the funds we receive from PDA. Scott Jones, a civil engineer for Johnson and Prewitt continues to serve as our Treasurer. We welcome Sarah Hammock, who has a degree in Accounting and will be running the new Glades County First Bank when it opens will serve as our Secretary. We also welcome Craig Cudworth, CEO of Hendry Regional Medical Center to our Board as well. He brings a wealth of experience to the table. We are sorry to say good bye to Pastor David McClusky, who in addition to being the new pastor at Calvary Baptist in Clewiston, also serves as the education coordinator for Hendry Regional Medical Center.
The partnership between Means to Recovery (Red Cross) has come to a close. The Red Cross has directly assisted 23 of clients for a total of $203,060.20. One of our UMCOR/Florida Conference of United Methodist Church Storm Recovery grants has come to a close.
Since March of last year, C.R.E.W. has been working with FEMA, Hendry County, and the City of Clewiston to find suitable housing solutions for FEMA clients still housed in FEMA units as of April 24, 2004. I felt it necessary to note the following totals to show how many different agencies have contributed to families in FEMA trailer that are working with CREW. These numbers represent goods and services paid for by these agencies for direct assistance to the families in an effort to move from FEMA temporary housing to permanent solutions. Note these amounts do not include money for staff or costs of case managing all these cases. The money noted below is only for direct good and services to provide permanent housing solcutions.
Hendry County $318,842.77 Glades $6862.57
v Red Cross Means to Recovery Program $156,492.58
v CRWRC $60,692.21 $4023.01
v UCC $6,222.50 $900
v VFF $49,155.39
v Rotary $9,233.86
v Catholic Charities $4472.99 $1789.56
v UMCOR $7776.38
v Empowerment Alliance $4750.80
v Good Shepherd Lutheran $2,750.00
v NFL/United Way $15,242.11
v Grace United Methodist Church $200
v First United Methodist Church of Clewiston $778.95
v Other private donors $1075.00
v United Way of Lee Hendry and Glades $150
This month we met with Hendry County’s new building inspector, Bob Ott. It was wonderful to meet him and he provided CREW with some great resources, and we look forward to working with him this year. CREW participated in many community events including Build Your Mission training put on by Volunteer Florida Foundation and the Florida Institute of Government, as well as staff meetings at the United Way in Ft. Myers. Trish assisted the United Way booth and provided them with CREW Flyers at the Swamp Cabbage Festival. Trish also submitted a grant request for $5000 to The Home Depot. Hilda attended the Small Business forum where owners were to discuss commercial insurance and the nuts and bolts of it hosted by Regional Director of the Florida Department of Financial Services, Mr. John Fischer. Trish also participated in Conference calls with VFF and Florida VOAD. Trish picked up donated mattress and box spring this month from a local “snow bird” couple that is old friends of CREW. Trish also assisted in preparation for and implementation of the Love Rocks fundraiser for Untied Way in Labelle at the Barron House, and donated left over orange juice from the event to the local First United Methodist Church in Clewiston. CREW presented 14 new cases, and provided updates on 33 cases at our Unmet Needs Meeting. We have continued to work with the Family Services Network for our two counties. This month, our Director and shared employee with United Way met with First United Methodist Church in Moorehaven and a representative of Harry Chapin Food Bank to see how we could help those needing food in Glades County and to discuss the possibility of expanding the churches current program. Our Director also did two presentations for the Southwest District of the United Methodist Women about CREW and raised $175.00 in doing so. Our director also met with Susan J. Meister, of Gulf Coast Communications for UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief). She has been writing for the agencies newsletter Bright Spots about the damage from Katrina and Rita, but came and interviewed us and many of our clients and we look forward to reading her article on http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/work/emergencies/ongoing/hurricane2005/brightspots/. Our director also met with CRWRC (Christian Reformed World Relief Church) volunteers who are working in Belle Glade and Pahokee, for a neighboring LTRO, this month for dinner for which the First United Methodist of Church of Clewiston hosted them. Furthermore, our director served as a volunteer for the Homeless Coalition, assisting them in completing Point- In-Time surveys on the homeless with the Hendry County SHIP coordinator and Empowerment Alliance of SW Florida staff. Trish and Renee attended the Disaster Donations Management Training, Florida VOAD Meeting and ESF 15 Coordinators Meeting in Tallahassee this month. Trish, along with the other officers of the Florida VOAD received a plaque of appreciate from Alex Amparo, Director of Emergency Management from Volunteer Florida and the State Emergency Response Team (SERT). While their, Trish was also able to present some appreciation awards that we have been holding on to for a while to Danielle Kearney from Lutheran Disaster Resources Reverend Karen Thomas from the United Church of Christ. During this time, back in Clewiston, Imelda attended the local Family Services Network meeting and Anthony traveled to Ft. Myers to attend a meeting for agencies requesting funding from the United Way. Trish also attended a United Way of Lee, Hendry and Glades Board Meeting, the Hendry County Emergency Services Council, and the Hendry Glades Homeless Coalition meetings this month. Trish served as a volunteer serving breakfast to the Homeless Coalition’s “Breakfast with the Easter Bunny” fundraiser. Trish also attended local Democrats monthly meeting and passed out flyers for CREW’s fundraiser. In addition she met with Marvin Hammentree the Disaster Coordinator from the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church and Bill Roy and Gricel Hernandez, Disaster Recovery Representatives from the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. We toured three homes that have recently had volunteers work and they were able to meet the homeowners. The First United Methodist Church of Clewiston also hosted them for dinner when they came for an in kind donation of $21.00. Gricel Hernandez, Disaster Recovery Representative from the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church has been here 3 days a week since the beginning of the month helping our with case management. Trish has been hosting her at her house providing her place to sleep to save the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church’s money, as well as First United Methodist Church of Clewiston has been feeding her each Wednesday night for an in-kind of $21 for the meals, and approximately $100 for shelter. Trish and Renee also attended an event for individuals who donate to the United Way through payroll deduction, of which we both do. This is the first time CREW has been included as we had not prior been contributing though payroll deduction.
Trish hosted the St. Thomas United Methodist Church from Manassas Virginia’s volunteer group for dinner at her house and Chuck and his Wife hosted a fish fry for the group at the First United Methodist Church in Clewiston. This was their fourth trip to Clewiston to help repair homes.
4481.25 volunteer hours were clocked this quarter for an in-kind donation of $84023.44
Total cases 773 includes open, closed unassigned and referrals Total open cases 117
79 clients have been served in the months of January, February and March. We opened 8 new cases this quarter, completed and updated 71 recovery plans, and 8 more are pending documentation from client before they can be opened. For statistical information, that is requested note that:
v 38 are female.
v 41 are male
v 40 are Hispanic
v 27 are African American
v 12 are Caucasian
v 5 fall within ages of 20-29
v 13 fall within ages of 30-39
v 19 fall within ages of 40-49
v 22 fall within ages of 50-59
v 9 fall within ages of 60-69
v 8 fall within ages of 70-79
v 2 fall within ages of 80-89
42 cases were closed this month.
v 27 female
v 15 male
v 16 Hispanic
v 15 African American
v 11 Caucasian
v 9 fall within ages of 30-39
v 11 fall within ages of 40-49
v 12 fall within ages of 50-59
v 7 fall within ages of 60-69
v 3 fall with ages of 70-79
v 6 were referred to another agency
v 24 had needs met by CREW
v 11 refused services
v 1 had needs met by themselves
WORK DONE BY VOLUNTEERS
Two individual Baptist volunteers from Virginia the week of February 1, 2008 through February 7, 2008 come and help make some repairs to M. G. with drywall, installing doors, and windows, working in the office to help with some filing and general office duties. They stayed in their RV at the Wayside Park owned by Hendry County. The assisted with 65 hours for a total in kind donation of $1202.50. The First United Methodist Church of Clewiston provided two meals for this group for a total in kind donation of $14.00.
On February 18, 2008 we had a volunteer donate 2.75 hours for a total in kind donation of $51.56. This volunteer is from the New Harvest Pentecostal Church. He worked on laying on the stakes for the pad for P. H.
We have also been blessed with the assistance from the CRWRC who has a contingent of volunteers in Palm Beach County who have sent some of the extra volunteers to help us with our repairs. We had six volunteers come and help on three homes. They worked on flooring and completed the repairs for I. F., they completed a roof repair and drywall, a sink repair and countertop for B. G., this group did drywall, molding and a roof vent repairs. They donated a total of 553 hours for an in kind donation of $10,368.75.
CRWRC has also sent a group of four volunteers for the week of February 25, 2008 through February 29, 2008, they have worked a total of 56 hours for a total in kind donation of $1050.00, and this group has worked on installing screens for E. Dunkley and replacing drywall for C. K. This group will also be working for the next two weeks on several other projects.
Manassas St. Thomas United Methodist Church from Virginia sent 23 volunteers this time to help with the house that we are currently building for P. H. This group was so large that we split them in to two groups. One group worked on the house, framing and sheathing, they have installed the trusses and will possibly be working on installing the windows and doors by Friday. The other half of this group have been working at A. B., replacing the roof and repairing the siding and skirting. This group stayed at the First United Methodist Church of Clewiston. The Methodist Church provided a meal as well. The Community Presbyterian Church also provided a meal while the group was here. Chuck and Sally Hager provided a meal on Tuesday for the group. This group worked a total of 1157.5 hours for a total in kind donation of $21703.10. The meals provided total an in kind donation of $630.00. The housing totals an in kind donation of $460.00. This group donated a total of $200.00 cash to CREW as well.
We have also helped CRWRC keep some volunteers who are working in Palm Beach County busy for this month. We had a group of 4 volunteers 3 men and 1 woman, come and work at B. W.’s house installing and finishing drywall throughout the house. This group of volunteers was from various places (Kansas, Ontario and Michigan). This group also worked at E. D. installing some new screens on the windows, for C. K. repairing a leaking roof and repairing some interior drywall. They also completed the ceiling drywall repair and painting for A.B., they relocated some insulation for R. W. in the attic and repaired and painted some drywall for D. C. This group worked a total of 252 hours for an in kind donation of $4725.00. This group worked here for three weeks (Feb. 23-March 15).
On March 1, 2008 St. Luke Lutheran Church sent a group of 8 male volunteers. This group of highly skilled men worked on the house we are building for P. H. They completed framing, sheeting the roof, adding shingles and completing siding on the entire house. They also installed 9 windows and the 2 exterior doors. This group contributed a total of 647 hours for an in kind donation of $12131.25. They were hosted by the Community Presbyterian Church who also fed the group for an in kind donation of $56.00. The First United Methodist Church also fed this group for an in kind donation of $56.00.
On March 8, 2008 Lutheran Laymen’s League came from North Dakota to work on the rebuild, unfortunately this did not happen due to contractors not passing inspections on their work. So, we had this group work on four other projects. This group consisted of 6 men and 1 woman. The group began working at Brenda West’s home tearing out old flooring and installing new underlay, they also installed new drywall on the ceiling throughout the house; they also sent a few to work on flooring underlay for R. V. The group sent a couple of the group to tie up some loose ends for L. P. to help get a final inspection to pass, and then went to work at B. J.’s house, installing new cabinets and replacing drywall in the ceiling there as well. This group donated a total of 591 hours for an in kind donation of $11081.25. They were hosted by the First Baptist Church and First United Methodist Church fed the group one night for an in kind donation of $49.00. The Community Presbyterian Church also fed this group for an in kind donation of $49.00.
CRWRC sent another group the week of March 17 – March 19. The group consisted of 2 men and 2 women. The group worked finishing drywall and painting for B. J. This group was also from several different places (Ontario, Michigan and Colorado). They worked a total of 56 hours for an in kind donation of $1050.00.
On March 15, 2008 Covenant United Methodist Church sent a group of 9 volunteers from Port Orange, Florida. This group was hoping to work on the rebuild; unfortunately this did not work out again, due to contractors failing inspections. We put the group in to complete the ceiling repairs and painting for B. W., They worked all week and have completed all the drywall repairs and painting. They worked a total of 349 hours for an in kind donation of $6543.75. This group was hosted by First United Methodist Church of Clewiston, who also fed them on two different occasions for an in kind donation of $98.00. The group consisted of 5 men, 3 women, and 1 youth.
CLIENT STORIES
One of our biggest undertakings this quarter was our 2nd rebuild. We are doing this for Pam. Pam is a 53 year old woman who works for Southern Gardens and has been there many years. She also does some cleaning for extra money. In addition to all this, she volunteers at local agencies regularly. Hurricane Wilma picked up Pam's mobile home and twisted it. Pam was inside the home during the storm and began to screw the wall back in as the storm was barreling down and ripping her home apart. After the Storm, she was told to leave, but she had no where to go, so she stayed where she was. Just prior to the storm, her insurance company cancelled her policy, because she failed to have "hand rails" on her porch. FEMA gave her $2600.00. She used the money to repair the water system and set the trailer back on the blocks. Pam has multiple medical problems, and the mold in her home was adding to her issues. Only one room in the trailer was livable, so she moved all her belongings into that one room. She has been living, eating and sleeping in her living room ever since. CREW received funds from CRWRC, UMCOR and is still raising funds to rebuild this home. The concrete slab was poured and then volunteers began working on it from the St. Thomas United Methodist Church group this in February. More volunteers worked on it throughout the quarter and we hope to have it completed soon.
Brenda is 57 year old white single mother a single mom raising her three bi-racial children as well as two of her grandchildren. Brenda’s trailer was severely damaged by Hurricane Wilma and the $2000.00 she received from FEMA was not enough. She is a seasonal farm worker and is very low income. The remaining repairs are about $5590.00, we received funds from the local Rotary to hire Bryant Roofing to come and repair her roof, volunteers from Covenant United Methodist Church came and repaired interior damage, walls, floors, ceilings, removing mildew and painting with funds donated by the Rotary and Catholic Charities.
Another client helped was Brenda, an African American 57 year old female who has lived in Clewiston over 34 years with her family. She lives with her daughter and son-in-law. She has worked in the Bakery in Wal-mart for the past 8 years. Hurricane Wilma destroyed her roof, inside ceiling, floors, 2 doors, and 3 windows. She had no home insurance when the storm hit as she could not afford it. She applied with FEMA who gave her $4000 which she used to repair her roof, generator and buy food. We sent volunteers several volunteer groups including Covenant United Methodist Church this quarter to help them and bought the $1600 in materials needed.
My heart was truly overwhelmed when CREW received the following thank you letter from Anna. Anna is a 40 year old Mexican woman that lives with her disabled cancer stricken husband and three children. Their home was severely damaged, more than the $600 they received from FEMA could address. They needed a new roof, new siding, flooring window and skirting replacement. Volunteers from CRWRC and St. Thomas Methodist Church in Manassas, Virginia came and repaired her home with donated funds from CRWRC and other sources. Here is the letter she wrote in response to the work our volunteers did. I also included pictures of the volunteers working on her home.
To whom it may Concern,
I'm writing this letter today in gratitude. Words cannot express what appreciation my heart fills in this moment. Everyone of us works towards a single goal in life, but as parents, we work mostly to provide a roof over the heads of members of our family. For years I have done just that! Work, work, work to maintain our home. Then devastation appeared. Hurricane Wilma came through our town and destroyed what peace we had. I came home that October and felt like my dream had been shattered. My roof was missing. Most of what I worked so hard for was destroyed. Still, my family and I tried to pick up the pieces and continue on with life. We did as much repairs as we could do, we were trying to save money so we could hire professionals. As the saying goes, "When it rains, it pours!" That's exactly how it seemed. On January 3rd 2007 my husband and I received the news that he had cancer. Suddenly there was doctor visits, hospital visits and specialists to see! Slowly what money we had saved to fix our home was spent to take care of my husband. My husband made it, he beat the cancer. Our roof was there but it failed to perform its duty. With no money to fix it, I turned to CREW. I explained my situation and then waited for an answer. The one I got was completely unexpected. Not only would they fix my roof but it would be at no cost to me. What a blessing!! Things were starting to look up. March of 2008, volunteers from CREW showed up at my house with supplies in hand. There it began, they started fixing my roof. More surprise was when they asked to come inside to see the repaired needed there. They fixed walls, windows and doors! They did it all. I just wanted to write this letter and say thank you. Thank you for repairing the roof! Thank you for fixing the floor. Thank you for repairing the walls and windows. Thank you for repairing the doors in our house. But mostly thank you for repairing my Dream! You gave me back what the hurricane took away. I thank CREW and those who volunteered for CREW. I don't know what I would have done without you. You are all angels!
God Bless you, Anna and Family
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