|
||||||||
| Hurricane Katrina Recovery Camps Due to Shut down in August | |||||||
|
Two stalwarts of the post-Hurricane Katrina recovery effort on the Gulf Coast will close their doors at the end of August, just after the fifth anniversary of the devastating storm that destroyed a wide swath of the coast. Mission on the Bay in Bay St. Louis, which had earlier merged with the Diocese of Mississippi's Camp Coast Care, is due to close by Aug. 31. Also due to close that day is Camp Victor. Both organizations, run by Lutheran Episcopal Services of Mississippi, began as camps to shelter survivors of the Aug. 29, 2005 storm and then served as staging grounds for volunteers who traveled to the coast to help with recovery and rebuilding. Mississippi Bishop Duncan Gray III told ENS via email July 16 that the camps' efforts, "supported by thousands of volunteers from around the world, have helped rebuild homes and lives." "The ministry of these communities, built in an ad hoc fashion, in the midst of absolute chaos and despair post-Katrina, is a testament to the vision and hope of resurrection that is ours in Christ Jesus," he said. A statement on the organizations' homepage says the closures come as "the time that has lapsed since Katrina, the downturn in the economy and the reality of other disasters, including the BP oil spill, have played significant roles in drawing funds in different directions." "Thus, the fiscal responsibility has surpassed our abilities and our current economy does not show signs of relenting," the statement said. The Rev. Elizabeth Wheatley-Jones, MOB's director and chaplain, told ENS July 16 that the two camps had been "struggling desperately" for the last nearly two and a half years to find money to pay for the cost of housing and coordinating volunteers. Granting agencies don't normally cover such overhead costs, she said, and the $25-per-day charge the camps instituted for each volunteer who came to work didn't raise enough money. There is also what might be called the compassion fatigue issue. "Nobody could have anticipated how long it was going to take, what the needs would be for how long. Certainly people said it would take eight to 10 years to get the coast back up and running," Wheatley-Jones said. "But we live in a community and a culture that doesn't have that kind of patience. You ask people everywhere today and they assume we're done [with the recovery and rebuilding effort.]" Butch Jones, Wheatley-Jones' husband and an early MOB director, said "part of recognizing that there's a mission is knowing when the mission either changes or the mission needs to end … Mission on the Bay has gotten to the point where we've pretty much done what we can do. We've accomplished the goals that we set to the best of our ability and [with] the resources we had." The statement on the camps' website said that there are efforts to raise $35,000 per camp to keep "close-out" construction crews on board for another six to eight months to finish work already begun. If the fund-raising is successful, the camps might be able to accommodate small groups of volunteers through the fall of this year, the statement said. Wheatley-Jones said that there is more work that could be done, citing at least the 5,000 Gulf Coast families known to the camps' case managers who have unmet housing needs. Mission on the Bay, which is located on leased land, will have to decide what to do with 10 modular buildings that served as bunkhouses for volunteers. Most of the materials it has on hand will be stored at Camp Victor for the time being, Wheatley-Jones said. Camp Coast Care was originally located on the grounds of the Coast Episcopal School in Long Beach, several miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico. Shortly after Katrina struck, the camp was organized, using tents, RVs, trailers and the school gymnasium as a combination sleeping area and cafeteria. It continued to serve as a distribution center for food and clothing, and cleaning and personal hygiene products, a free medical clinic and to sponsor work crews to assist in the clean up. Wheatley-Jones recently cited statistics that give what she called a "gracious glimpse" at the work done through the agency: 60,000 volunteers who contributed 2.4 million hours valued at $45 million, 3,500 homes mucked out and/or gutted, 550 homes rehabilitated or built anew, 2,200 individuals or families whose needs were managed, 1.25 million meals served, and $15 million cash into Gulf Coast economies. "That is a creative response and a job well done: participation in the ways of God, the transformation of lives, one family and one home at a time, day in and day out for five years," she told the Mississippi Episcopalian newspaper. Wheatley-Jones told ENS that all of those involved offer "humble thanks" for Episcopalians' "abundant generosity" and the gift of their presence on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Their "expression of ministry," she said "has really been an embodiment of the people of Episcopal Church seeking and serving Christ in one another." The response to suffering over the last five years "has opened everyone's eyes on the coast and elsewhere to the divine life that can't help but respond in times like those of Katrina and Haiti and the oil spill," she said. "It draws out of us what was in place from the beginning when we were created in God's image to be partners in creation – creating community, creating sustainable life, engaging in a very hand-on, full body, mind and soul ministry," Wheatley-Jones added. She said many volunteers learned during their time on the cost that being part of the church is about being the body of Christ for one another, rather than participating in a Sunday "spectator sport." Two celebrations are planned to honor the camps' ministries. On Aug. 14, Gray will preside at 5 p.m. Eucharist at Mission on the Bay in Bay St. Louis. On Aug. 26, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Southeastern Synod Bishop H. Julian Gordy will lead a service at Camp Victor in Ocean Springs. |
|
||||||
 |
 |