Video: Helping Miss Hattie

Sunday, March 04, 2007

By Annie O'Neill
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette
Hattie Mae Richardson, says the volunteers from the Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod and the Lutheran Disaster Response will never know how deeply grateful she is to them for repairing her roof so quickly.
Click photo for larger image.

Mac users

Viewers using Macintosh computers are encouraged to download this video in Quicktime format. It is available in two broadband sizes, medium and large.

Hattie Mae Richardson, of Moss Point, Miss., had been waiting almost 18 months for her roof to be repaired after it was severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

Over four days this winter, 18 volunteers from the Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America swarmed her house and finished the task. They also repaired her shed roof for good measure.

They are among dozens of local church groups that have volunteered in Gulf Coast clean-up and repair since Katrina.

The synod and the Lutheran Disaster Response sponsored 185 volunteers who traveled to the storm-damaged Mississippi coast over a three-week period at the end of January and the beginning of February. Three groups went down for a week at a time.

The groups will have a reunion at St. Andrews Lutheran Church in Moon today to discuss the work they did and to exchange stories.

"This builds me up more than anything else," said John Hertzog, of Butler, a returning volunteer. "This world doesn't have enough love. It has a lot of hate and 'What's in it for me?' You just need to take time out to love."

The volunteers stayed at Camp Victor, a 208-bed ministry run by Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Ocean Springs, Miss. Besides roofing, they did painting, floor installation, electrical, tile work, demolition, dry wall hanging, clean-up and food distribution.

"These people are really hurting. I take the groceries out to the car and listen to their stories and your heart just goes," said Denise Cook, of Freedom, who worked at the Christus Victor Distribution Center attached to Camp Victor.

"You just want to stand there and cry in front of them but you have to be stronger and not let them feel any worse than what they are."


	Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette Volunteers from the Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod end a day of roof repair by gathering around Hattie Mae Richardson, in green, for a prayer. Click photo for larger image