Lend your heart to Visions for Friends so they may Rebuild Their Lives

Last year, I traveled to New Orleans with a group of local students to help rebuild a house destroyed during hurricane Katrina.  When I got there, I found that the situation down there was worse than ever imaginable.  I realized how fortunate we are in Connecticut, safe and warm in a comfortable home.  Since then, I have spoken to many people who feel the same way and would also like to help people return to a safe, warm environment.

Ms. Della Mae Weatherspoon is just one of the dear people affected by Hurricane Katrina.  A mother and grandmother at the age of 79 she is a retired Greyhound bus driver.  Prior to Hurricane Katrina, Ms. Weatherspoon had lived in her house since 1972 with her daughter and granddaughter.  Her Social Security and disability pensions from Greyhound were the only sources of household income resulting in her struggling with expenses.

Then the Hurricane Hit.  Ms. Weatherspoon was evacuated from Ochsner Baptist by helicopter to the Superdome.  There she was separated from her daughter and granddaughter for they were taken to different hospitals.  She was eventually moved to a rehabilitation facility in Hammond, La.  She rented in Hammond and received some assistance from FEMA.  When her rental assistance ended, she could no longer afford both the mortgage payment on her house and rent.  She had to use the flood insurance money to pay off the mortgage.

Today, Ms. Weatherspoon is living in a FEMA trailer on her property with her daughter and granddaughter.  She is unable to about inside the trailer or exit the trailer without assistance even though a ramp has been installed.  The house still requires extensive repairs.

Stories like this and the experience I had, combined with seeing in others the desire to help, inspired me to go back to New Orleans this year with a group of volunteers to build and renovate more homes.

This effort requires time, money and most of all people willing to give a little of themselves. 

Our goals are simple:

• Raise $100,000, the cost to rebuild a home, through corporate and individual donations.  Click here to donate.
  
  
• Create 12-16 groups of volunteers, each of which will travel to New Orleans for approximately 4 days on a rotating schedule
  to help construct the home, volunteers to help manage the effort, and volunteers to run fundraising events.  Click here for volunteer info.

CURRENT PROJECT STATUS UPDATE:

Hello All,

I am writing after a very successful day of demolition at Ms. Weatherspoon's house. Next week, the plan is to finish up the gutting, clean up the whole house to get it ready for proper construction, and start putting in some insulation where appropriate. As far as
the plumbing goes, I'd really like to get started soon after that so the place can be inspected and ready for its walls to be closed. There are several reasons why I would not like to use a volunteer plumber. I need to have the plumbing finished, and most importantly passing inspection before you send your sheetrock guys. We can't close any walls until that inspection is done and this plumbing job is a two week job minimum. The other issue with using a volunteer plumber for a rough-in is that somebody has to be willing to pull a permit for a plumber who's skill level they don't know. The volunteer could rarely finish a rough-in in one week, so then we have to pay the local plumber the full amount to come back and redo it his own way. The problem with using a volunteer
for trim-outs is that the CM would already have the original plumber under contract, and they never refund more than half the amount for not having to come back. If there is no contract, this is OK. It might be possible for him to work alongside the plumber,
but that would push this project back at least three weeks and you wouldn't be able to send down your framers and sheetrock guys at the times you mentioned.

There are two other issues I would like to raise. The first is the downstairs "apartment". I have not mentioned this to Ms. Weatherspoon, but we would save about $8,300 on the plumbing contract alone if we can convince her to eliminate her downstairs bathroom and kitchenette. That's not to mention that we would not have to do any of the plumbing fixtures or flooring either. The second is that I strongly think she should have central air put in instead of window units. The electrician has already run circuits for the window units, but says he will come back to run HVAC circuits free of charge. A complete HVAC system is already in the
C.A.R.E budget for about $13,000, but would actually run about $9,000. I strongly feel that this is the better move for this house because running only two of those window units will about equal the expenditures of central air. This will, however, slightly push back the timeline for closing walls.

For me it is difficult to wait on this project because I spend time with Ms. Weatherspoon every day. Her entire world is a 6'x6' porch that she cannot leave. Each time I see her she mentions how limited her days are and I'd hate to see a two or three week period
with her sitting there and no work happening. I'd really like to get the rough-ins completed properly as soon as possible and the inspections passed so this project can be open to a diverse and steady flow of volunteers. If I can go ahead with this plan, I won't promise that the inspections will be complete by June 3rd, but I can have some small carpentry jobs available (installing windows
& maybe light framing) and certain walls ready for sheetrock.

Thanks,

Brad Spencer
Construction Manager
Rebuilding Together New Orleans