On Thursday, October 6, 2011, Maintenance Design Group participated in a house rebuild project with colleagues from the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) in the Upper Ninth Ward of New Orleans. In conjunction with APTA’s Annual Meeting and Expo this year in New Orleans, APTA partnered with the St. Bernard Project to organize more than 300 volunteers from around the country to assist in rebuilding parts of 16 houses over 2 work days.
The St. Bernard Project (SBP) is an organization which has helped to rebuild homes for senior citizens, the disabled and families who cannot afford to have their homes rebuilt by contractors. Given the extreme financial hardship experienced by SBP’s clients as a result of Hurricane Katrina, volunteer labor and donated supplies fuel the effort’s success. To date, SBP has completed rebuilding 398 houses, with 50 more currently under construction.
The 7 MDG individuals who volunteered included Don Leidy, Steve Radomski, Mark Ellis, Ken Booth, Jon Holler, John Wulfmeyer and Jim Kumon. They spent the day completing the drywall mudding and sanding process, painting walls and ceilings, cleaning windows, and installing siding on the exterior of the house.
They worked on the house of Alonzo and Donna Craft, whose home flooded with four feet of water after the levies broke in the 9th Ward. They evacuated to a shelter in Mississippi where they stayed for eight months before being able to return to the city and stay nearby with family.
When St. Bernard Project started work on the Craft house in 2011, it was initially supposed to be minor touch-ups. However, as the SBP team began to examine the house, they realized a major effort was needed in order to correct extremely poor contractor work previously performed on the house with insurance money. With the help of APTA and MDG’s work in the house boosting progress, the Craft family hopes to return home by the end of the year.
For more info see: St. Bernard Project Rebuilding Program.