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CORE volunteers need help as rebuilding gets tougher
By DANA BURKE
After a brief meeting on a recent Saturday morning, a group of friends who had barely met each other headed to a trailer parked at Gloria Dei Church, where they lined up to receive brooms, dustpans, scrub brushes and sanitizers.
Split into teams, they got into their cars and drove to 11 homes and one Veterans of Foreign Wars facility, where they spent the entire day cleaning up hurricane damage.
And this isn’t the first day it’s happened.
While most Bay Area residents are planning their Christmas shopping lists, volunteers with the Nassau Bay-based CORE Alliance have been working every day since Ike struck the Gulf Coast to help residents still dealing with homes filled with mold, debris and even water.
“They’re just the nicest people that anybody could ever meet,” Seabrook resident Pat Paxton said of the group.
After leaving four cats to weather the storm as she headed off to Deer Park, Paxton returned to find that although the cats were intact, Galveston Bay had paid her an unwelcome visit.
Removing moldy sheetrock is an arduous task for anyone, let alone a senior citizen, and without a hefty insurance check, Paxton could have paid up to $3,000 to hire a contractor to clean out her home.
After learning of her situation, CORE sent a team of volunteers to pack up her belongings, remove the sheetrock and sanitize the home.
They even created a temporary living space for Paxton.
“It’s a little bit uncomfortable,” she said. “They fixed one room up for me because I was so anxious to get home.”
CORE will return, she said, to help with additional repairs, and they’re also keeping tabs on Paxton’s needs. “They call me almost every day,” she said.
So far, CORE volunteers have cleaned and sanitized about 145 houses, and they’re currently making the transition from cleanup work to reconstruction, said Jon Keeney, who helps gather funds and supplies for the group. “We are still getting some calls for mucking out homes, but not nearly as many.”
Rebuilding is going to take additional funds and expensive supplies, however, and local support is waning as the Bay Area gets back to its pre-Ike routine, he said.
“We’re lining up money and materials,” Keeney said, adding that the group has also applied for a grant from the Texas Relief Fund.
CORE still has local volunteers coming to work but the organization’s leaders hope to recruit more skilled laborers to help with jobs such as installing electrical systems.
Right now, “we’re kind of depending on out-of-town people,” Work Team Coordinator Eric Cummings said.
The group gives first priority to residents without insurance, and is concentrating most of its efforts in Shoreacres, Seabrook and now Galveston, Cummings said. Holding an insurance policy does not immediately disqualify a homeowner from receiving assistance, although CORE leaders do ask residents to pay for materials if they can afford it.
CORE has a difficult time helping residents in Kemah, Cummings said, because the city’s ordinances and regulations are not as conducive to volunteer labor.
The organization was established in 2005 as a partnership between Gloria Dei and Gateway Community Church, when volunteers went to assist Mississippi residents battered by Hurricane Katrina. There, they spent one year helping more than 500 families with cleanup and rebuilding 70 houses.
“When Ike hit in our own backyard, it was a no-brainer,” Cummings said.
Word of CORE’s mission has been spreading, and volunteers across the United States are answering the call for help.
Last weekend, teenagers arrived from Lutheran High School in St. Louis, Mo., and the Colorado Ridge Church in Denver.
Denver residents Brandy Taylor and C.J. Andrews volunteered for the first time in September. They returned with eight other girls.
A group of Amish volunteers will arrive in January, and Gloria Dei recently hosted the Baylor Univerisity baseball team.
“They really went to town,” Base Camp Director Matt Schultz said. “Those guys have some serious endurance.”
A U.S. map on the way to the dorms pinpoints the cities the volunteers hail from, and a poster has been added to thank those from Germany, China, Switzerland, England and Norway.
Volunteers don’t have to worry about finding hotel rooms – local Boy Scouts have built 82 bunk beds, housed at the church, and Sealy provided the mattresses.
The hallways leading to the dorm room are decorated with drawings from local elementary school kids, thanking the volunteers for their work. Take a look at the bunks, and you get an idea of how many people have come to help.
“We’ve got Sharpies lying around, and they sign their bunks and let you know where they’re from,” Shultz said.
A group has donated a shower trailer complete with instant water heaters, and workers get three meals a day, supplied by a volunteer cooking team.
Some, like the Baylor baseball players, require a little more fuel than others. “We had to make a special trip to Sam’s for them one morning,” Shultz said.
The CORE office, housed in a shipping container, was also built by volunteers, and local resident Barry Beasley installed several wireless phones that were donated by ATT.
While CORE leaders are in the hunt for workers with construction experience and building certifications, Shultz said he has a job for everyone, from manning the supply tent to just talking to homeowners whose lives have been turned upside down.
Donations of supplies, materials and funds are also welcome and have already been provided by many Bay Area businesses. “The community has really stepped up over time,” Keeney said.
To help with CORE’s rebuilding effort, call 1-877-684-2673.
Split into teams, they got into their cars and drove to 11 homes and one Veterans of Foreign Wars facility, where they spent the entire day cleaning up hurricane damage.
And this isn’t the first day it’s happened.
While most Bay Area residents are planning their Christmas shopping lists, volunteers with the Nassau Bay-based CORE Alliance have been working every day since Ike struck the Gulf Coast to help residents still dealing with homes filled with mold, debris and even water.
“They’re just the nicest people that anybody could ever meet,” Seabrook resident Pat Paxton said of the group.
After leaving four cats to weather the storm as she headed off to Deer Park, Paxton returned to find that although the cats were intact, Galveston Bay had paid her an unwelcome visit.
Removing moldy sheetrock is an arduous task for anyone, let alone a senior citizen, and without a hefty insurance check, Paxton could have paid up to $3,000 to hire a contractor to clean out her home.
After learning of her situation, CORE sent a team of volunteers to pack up her belongings, remove the sheetrock and sanitize the home.
They even created a temporary living space for Paxton.
“It’s a little bit uncomfortable,” she said. “They fixed one room up for me because I was so anxious to get home.”
CORE will return, she said, to help with additional repairs, and they’re also keeping tabs on Paxton’s needs. “They call me almost every day,” she said.
So far, CORE volunteers have cleaned and sanitized about 145 houses, and they’re currently making the transition from cleanup work to reconstruction, said Jon Keeney, who helps gather funds and supplies for the group. “We are still getting some calls for mucking out homes, but not nearly as many.”
Rebuilding is going to take additional funds and expensive supplies, however, and local support is waning as the Bay Area gets back to its pre-Ike routine, he said.
“We’re lining up money and materials,” Keeney said, adding that the group has also applied for a grant from the Texas Relief Fund.
CORE still has local volunteers coming to work but the organization’s leaders hope to recruit more skilled laborers to help with jobs such as installing electrical systems.
Right now, “we’re kind of depending on out-of-town people,” Work Team Coordinator Eric Cummings said.
The group gives first priority to residents without insurance, and is concentrating most of its efforts in Shoreacres, Seabrook and now Galveston, Cummings said. Holding an insurance policy does not immediately disqualify a homeowner from receiving assistance, although CORE leaders do ask residents to pay for materials if they can afford it.
CORE has a difficult time helping residents in Kemah, Cummings said, because the city’s ordinances and regulations are not as conducive to volunteer labor.
The organization was established in 2005 as a partnership between Gloria Dei and Gateway Community Church, when volunteers went to assist Mississippi residents battered by Hurricane Katrina. There, they spent one year helping more than 500 families with cleanup and rebuilding 70 houses.
“When Ike hit in our own backyard, it was a no-brainer,” Cummings said.
Word of CORE’s mission has been spreading, and volunteers across the United States are answering the call for help.
Last weekend, teenagers arrived from Lutheran High School in St. Louis, Mo., and the Colorado Ridge Church in Denver.
Denver residents Brandy Taylor and C.J. Andrews volunteered for the first time in September. They returned with eight other girls.
A group of Amish volunteers will arrive in January, and Gloria Dei recently hosted the Baylor Univerisity baseball team.
“They really went to town,” Base Camp Director Matt Schultz said. “Those guys have some serious endurance.”
A U.S. map on the way to the dorms pinpoints the cities the volunteers hail from, and a poster has been added to thank those from Germany, China, Switzerland, England and Norway.
Volunteers don’t have to worry about finding hotel rooms – local Boy Scouts have built 82 bunk beds, housed at the church, and Sealy provided the mattresses.
The hallways leading to the dorm room are decorated with drawings from local elementary school kids, thanking the volunteers for their work. Take a look at the bunks, and you get an idea of how many people have come to help.
“We’ve got Sharpies lying around, and they sign their bunks and let you know where they’re from,” Shultz said.
A group has donated a shower trailer complete with instant water heaters, and workers get three meals a day, supplied by a volunteer cooking team.
Some, like the Baylor baseball players, require a little more fuel than others. “We had to make a special trip to Sam’s for them one morning,” Shultz said.
The CORE office, housed in a shipping container, was also built by volunteers, and local resident Barry Beasley installed several wireless phones that were donated by ATT.
While CORE leaders are in the hunt for workers with construction experience and building certifications, Shultz said he has a job for everyone, from manning the supply tent to just talking to homeowners whose lives have been turned upside down.
Donations of supplies, materials and funds are also welcome and have already been provided by many Bay Area businesses. “The community has really stepped up over time,” Keeney said.
To help with CORE’s rebuilding effort, call 1-877-684-2673.
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