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January 5, 2008 - Clarion Herald
On-the-job training, big hearts fuel rebuild
By Peter Finney Jr.
A few months ago, AmeriCorps volunteer Scott Porot's construction experience consisted almost exclusively of watching home improvement shows on television.
Now the 24-year-old recent graduate of Loyola University in Chicago, who majored in such rarefied subjects as mathematics and international studies with minors in political science, Asian studies and urban studies, actually knows which end of a hammer is to use and is showing others how they, too, might one day become a famous TV carpenter.
"I didn't have a clue before, not even a prayer," said Porot, who is among 12 AmeriCorps volunteers who have signed up for a year learning the ropes and then working as site leaders for Catholic Charities' Operation Helping Hands home-rebuilding program. "It was like, 'This is a hammer? I have no idea what this is!' Now I've done everything from painting to tiling to framing to dry wall and everything in between."
Eager, young volunteers who have no real construction experience but who have a passion for others are the lifeblood of the Helping Hands program, whose participants have gutted and cleaned nearly 2,000 homes since Hurricane Katrina and are now rebuilding dozens of others. In the 28 months since Katrina, 14,000 volunteers have come to help.
The long-term Helping Hands volunteers come in as construction rookies, but over the course of several weeks they learn enough basics to be able to oversee an entire jobsite and coordinate teams of other inexperienced volunteers who are here only for a week or two.
"Basically, they're showing people something that they learned last week," said Paul Cook, senior project manager for Helping Hands, an experienced contractor from Ohio who joined Catholic Charities after working locally on home reconstruction following Katrina. Cook took over in June 2007 from Baton Rouge Deacon John Ferguson, who helped start Helping Hands.
"But that's what we have to do," Cook said. "Being a faith-based organization, we have limited resources and we have to buy the materials. I have 30 years in construction, and I've done everything from framing a house to cabinet-building. I'm familiar with all aspects of it."
Helping Hands coordinates the labor of about 150 to 160 volunteers each week. The work crews keep supplies and equipment at St. Raymond parish, and they return from their sites for lunch and dinner. Eight AmeriCorps volunteers live in the St. Raymond rectory, and another for live at Hope Haven on the West Bank.
Josephite Father John O'Hallaran, who was pastor of St. Raymond before the storm, said the volunteers were able to restore the school cafeteria, where a reunion Mass was held recently, but he does not know if the archdiocese will reopen the church in the future.
"At the Mass, we thanked all of the volunteers," Father O'Hallaran said. "I think it's tremendous that so many young people have come down here to help out. I also think its a good source of vocations. These young people, willing to give up their time, are tremendous."
Porot said his experience goes far beyond the physical improvements his colleagues have been able to provide for others who lost everything. His crew is putting the finishing touches on a Harvey home owned by the Fraychineaud family, which has battled deafness for four generations. Both Fraychineaud parents and one of their three children are deaf, and they have been living in separate places because of schooling and job issues.
"Their little daughter, who is 7 years old, came by and asked me, 'Are you going to finish my house?'" Porot said. "I told her, 'If it's the last thing I do in this life, I'm going to finish your house.' What this family has been through just blows my mind. It challenges my reality."
The experience has left Porot and his colleagues awe-struck over the resilience of people who have lost their life's possessions.
"You can't forget that in every tragedy there are people involved," he said. "Somewhere along the line people forget there were human beings here who have hearts and lives and families. The second thing I've learned is that we all suffered in different ways. No two stories are alike. You can't put Katrina into a box any more. But, if you really have people who care and you put your heart and mind into something, almost anything can be conquered." |
