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December 1 , 2007 - Clarion Herald
Impelled by Christ's call, couple comes to serve
By Christine Bordelon
It was two days before Thanksgiving, but instead of preparing for large family gatherings, Tom and Kay Conroy were standing on tall ladders priming and painting the exterior of a stranger’s home on Jackson Avenue in New Orleans.
“We are definitely out of our comfort zone,” Kay Conroy said about being in New Orleans.
The Conroys , f rom Geneseo, Ill., committed to six months of volunteering through Catholic Charities’ Operation Helping Hands in New Orleans, a program that has gutted and rebuilt homes since Hurricane Katrina.
“We took it (the Bible message) seriously – leave everything behind and follow me,” Kay Conroy, said, adding that they sold their home of 25 years, many possessions and trekked to New Orleans to help those less fortunate than they.
Licensed, professional painting contractors by trade, the Conroys, both Catholic, had planned to simplify lives and do something meaningful to help others. The more they heard about Hurricane Katrina, they knew that’s where they needed to be.
“We were waiting for the opportunity to use our talents where it would make the biggest difference,” Kay Conroy said about their decision to come to New Orleans.
The Conroys were among the 13,802 volunteers who have expended 390,000 volunteer hours of service through Operation Helping Hands.
“The volunteers do outside work – painting, scraping and yard work,” Debbie Koehler, worksite coordinator for Operation
Helping Hands, said.
Operation Helping Hands has played many roles in the rebuilding process. Mainly targeting the elderly and disabled, the program has been an advocate for the homeowner, Kevin Fitzpatrick, program volunteer housing coordinator, said.
“We try not to turn anybody away,” Fitzpatrick said.
Representatives initially helped garner appointments for clients with the Road Home program, and then arranged for a licensed contractor approved by the Operation Helping Hands to refurbish a home using Road Home or insurance money.
In its first building phase, Operation Helping Hands gutted 1,925 homes, Koehler said. Since the second rebuilding phase started in summer 2007, 31 homes have been completed, and contracts for dozens of others have been signed.
Volunteer labor, such as the Conroys were providing, fills in the monetary gaps between the actual Road Home money and homeowner rebuild costs. Operation Helping Hands supervises the whole project.
On many of the job sites, Operation Helping Hands has worked in partnership with other nonprofit organizations, including 20 homes with the Order of Malta, Koehler said. At the Jackson Avenue site, Operation Helping Hands was swapping its expertise in exterior painting for a roof job at another site with a Mennonite organization.
The Conroys weren’t alone at the New Orleans home. They were painting alongside 10 youth ministry members from the Salesians of St. John Bosco of Bronx, N.Y. Their common bond was their Catholic faith and a will to help others overcome a disaster.
“It was unexpected,” said Megan Fraino, 22, about the hurricane. “A lot of people we help are elderly and disabled. There’s a different sense of care and concern when you do this.”
Fraino and the Conroys see their duty beyond just rebuilding while they are here.
“There is so much to be done here,” Fraino said. “No matter what I do down here, the bigger work is going back to New York and telling everybody what is really going on here.”
“Hopefully, we will act like a pipeline to our area,” Kay Conroy said.
Operation Helping Hands has provided a vital service to New Orleans, and it will continue for quite a while. Fitzpatrick said 133 homes remain on the waiting list to be painted. Homeowners who have completed the rebuilding process but are still in need of exterior painting can get on Operation Helping Hands’ waiting list for exterior painting.
“Without the service we’re providing and the volunteers coming in, for most of these people, they couldn’t come back,” Koehler said.
Operation Helping Hands can be reached at (504) 895-5439.
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