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December 3, 2006 - The Times-Picayune
Helping Hands volunteers lauded at MQP
By Karen Baker
They've worked in temperatures from 30 degrees to 90 degrees, with volunteers from 17 to 70 years old; they've tackled refrigerators that reeked and consoled homeowners who wept.
Now, a year after they started working, the volunteers from Mary, Queen of Peace in Mandeville will be honored for their dedication to Operation Helping Hands, a program run by Catholic Charities to help homeowners gut and rebuild their hurricane-damaged homes.
Deacon John Ferguson, who has organized the work crews since last December, will visit the church on Dec. 10, presenting a plaque and thanking the parish for its dedication to the cause.
"We're going to give them a token of our appreciation," Ferguson said.
"They are the only parish in the Archdiocese of New Orleans that has come" on a regular basis. "We can count on them to finish a house in one day. . . . They work till they get it done."
Debbie Koehler, a supervisor with the Operation Helping Hands program for Catholic Charities, agreed.
"They have been the most faithful parish with our program," she said. "Father Ronnie (Calkins) got involved from the get-go, and they've had different people heading it up."
It was at a meeting in Baton Rouge last year that Calkins, pastor at Mary, Queen of Peace, said he first heard about the program. "I knew, 'This is going to be for us; this is something we can do.' "
"Not long after the hurricane, I had a strong sense that the Lord would be calling us at Mary, Queen of Peace to do as much as we could to help others who had much more devastation than we did," said Calkins, who has made two trips with the parish Helping Hands team. "We were in a position to help others."
He credits the leadership of parishioner Mark Marchione, who coordinated the team last year before being transferred to California with the Coast Guard.
"What a blessing that was. That was a perfect fit."
Calkins now gives credit to new leaders Roger and Kim Kocken and a core of dedicated volunteers such as Suzanne Smith, Bob Nemeth and Dwyane LeBlanc.
Kim Kocken said she saw a picture in the parish newsletter, which prompted her to volunteer. "I wanted to help people and give something back to the city. It's a good Christian thing to do."
Suzanne Smith, who has made almost every one of the 25 trips during the past year, said she loves many things about Operation Helping Hands.
"I like seeing the neighborhoods coming to life," she said, and she is touched by the many stories that homeowners share.
"It's a great blessing for our parish to help people get back into their homes and for the recovery of our area," Calkins said.
Catholic Charities will honor Mary, Queen of Peace and Holy Rosary in St. Amant on the one-year anniversary of Operation Helping Hands.
The program sends volunteers to gut the homes of the elderly and needy who lack the money or ability to do it themselves.
They have had more than 7,000 volunteers from across the country and just celebrated the 1,000th home gutted, Koehler said.
Even at more than 1,000 homes, Catholic Charities still has 1,352 on its waiting list, she said.
That, plus the fact that the program is moving into the rebuilding phase, will keep hundreds of volunteers from across the country busy, she said.
And it will keep the team from Mary, Queen of Peace in business.
The volunteers meet at the church every other Saturday morning and travel across the lake to a work site assigned to them.
During the past year, a total of 70 people have taken turns working on 26 homes and logged 2,000 volunteer hours. They are provided with lunch every week by another group of parishioners.
The largest work crew was 17, the smallest was two.
The oldest is Dave Moynan, 74, who lost his home in Lakeview, relocated to Mandeville and now travels often with the Helping Hands crew.
The youngest volunteers were Susan Parr and Conrad Banttari, 17, who worked with a crew on Nov. 25.
It was with one of the smaller groups -- five parishioners -- that the team had one of its most memorable visits, according to volunteer Suzanne Smith.
Last spring, the group was sent to the home of Norman Smith on Bullard Avenue in eastern New Orleans.
Amy Gisleson, site supervisor, said Smith had been living in a trailer in front of his home for months, but he just could not walk through the front door until the volunteers from Mary, Queen of Peace arrived.
They talked with him, cried with him, removed his front door and helped him walk through.
"They have been an enormous help," Gisleson said. "When they went to help Norman Smith, who lost 30 years of his resources for African- American calendars, they worked with him side by side.
"They showed extreme compassion. . . . It is an amazing crew. They just jump in and do it."
For more information on the Operation Helping Hands program and to volunteer, check the Web site at www.ccano.org.
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