Sistercare
California Christmas Family
The Haven - Friends for Life
Mooresville Soup Kitchen
A letter was received referencing a 2007 donation. It stated just how appreciative the Mooresville Soup Kitchen is of these funds. Judy wanted to thank each member of the PBC for helping the over 24,000 served at the kitchen.
Horse Protection Society
Hinds Hospice
Hendrick's Foundation for Children
Dale Jr. Fouundation
Below is a portion of a thank you letter received from the Dale Jr Foundation:
The Dale Jr Foundation would like to thank the PBC for their generous donation. Thank you for your involvement and we hope to have the opportunity to work with the PBC throughout 2008.
Adopt a Holiday Family
Below is a portion of a thank you letter received concerning the PBC and the Adopt a Holiday Family Program:
Good deeds often go unnoticed. The value of the “good deed” is often tremendous, but so many of us are simply too busy to stop and simply say “Thanks.”
My words of gratitude are belated, but my heart-felt appreciation is strong for those who have supported Our Lady of Mount Carmel – Saint Benedicta Parish. One of our needy Parish families was chosen by your organization to be the recipient of your generosity at Thanksgiving and Christmas time. They are not seasons but times of such overwhelming feelings, especially for those who have to do without. We’re sure many good hearts made a lot of sacrifices to make this happen for this family and they were filled with heartfelt thanks towards your organization and all the people who made it happen. The mothers face was aglow when she told us that her children’s smiles lit up the room on Christmas morning. Had it not been for your kindness they would not have been able to provide their children with this special moment. Thanks go out to all of those in your charity who do so much and who are not thanked enough. They are truly blessed to be the recipient of your generosity.
Stocks for Tots
Tricia and Laura were selected by the PBC Board to represent the PBC at the Stocks for Tots event held in December 2007. Here is Tricia's account of that evening.
We headed off Tuesday evening to the center where it was being held. We were a bit early for the VIP Cocktail Party so Laura and I sat outside and chatted for a while. At 5:30 we entered the building to speak to John Maloney to present the check donation from the PBC.
We got our name tags and Amy Eisele (pictured above with Tricia) the executive director of SCAN (Stop Child Abuse Now) came by for the check presentation. Laura and I had a chance to speak to Amy and also to Cotton Ketchie, a photographer and board member of SCAN. Cotton invited us to his gallery across the street after the event.
Kelley Earnhardt Elledge was one of the guest speakers. During her speech she said..."And when fans of Dale Jr. and charities such as the Pit Board Charity ask us what programs we support …SCAN is always at the top of the list"...when the PBC was mentioned she looked directly at Laura and I. We were beaming!!
Habitat for Humanity
On Tuesday of this week, I had the honor and privilege of delivering the PBC checks to the two Habitat for Humanity chapters chosen in our fundraiser, Hancock County Habitat for Humanity in Waveland/Bay St. Louis, Mississippi and East St. Tammany Habitat for Humanity in Slidell Louisiana. You’ll remember that we chose these chapters because they are not getting the publicity and money that bigger cities are getting. There is such a need here that all areas, big and small, still need a lot. I want you to know that, because of you, children will have beds to sleep in for Christmas Eve, families will have living rooms in which to put up Christmas trees, and they will eat Christmas dinner in their own homes!
I left Baton Rouge around 8:00 and headed for Waveland/Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. I arrived around 10:00. The director, Wendy McDonald, had just left to go to one of the building sites and had asked one of the volunteers to take me over there. When we got there, Wendy had a TV crew there to talk about some flooding they had the week before. (We had torrential rains last week.) They were also there to film the check presentation. Al Showers from WLOX-TV in Biloxi interviewed me and asked all about the Charity. When I presented the check, I told Wendy how much we loved helping and that on behalf of the PBC, JR Motorsports, and The Tony Stewart Foundation, we were pleased to present them with $6,000.00. Wendy and everyone in the organization were thrilled and very appreciative!
After the check presentation, I got to look inside the homes. Wendy told me that our money will go toward finishing/furnishing the inside of two homes. If there is any money left over, it will go toward sod and bushes for the front yards. They will be done before Christmas. “Our” houses are the last two on the street. In the video, one of our houses is directly behind where we were standing for the check presentation. In the pictures, our second house is behind where Wendy and I are standing with the check. The houses are three-bedroom/one bath and each one has a small utility shed in what will be the back yard.
After the check presentation and the tour of the houses, one of the volunteers took me on a drive around the area. As you see in the pictures, the devastation in a lot of the areas of Bay St. Louis is total. There is not much more left than concrete slabs where houses once stood. The houses were blown and washed away. Fifteen months later, the insurance companies are still fighting the people over whether the damage was caused by wind or water. Most still have not received insurance money. Many, many, many people throughout the Gulf Coast are still paying house notes on nothing. Notice the picture where the home owner wrote a poem to State Farm. As rightfully upset as a lot of people are at the insurance companies, I was surprised it was not full of “25-point” words! This is also the reason some homeowners cannot remove debris; they must wait until the insurance is settled.
I have traveled Beach Road (Hwy 90) many times. It used to be a nice two-lane road with the Gulf and white beaches on one side and beautiful big homes on the other. As you can see by the pictures, it is just a dirt road now and the water of the Gulf is still filled with lots of debris. There are places where debris remains in trees. One picture I took is of a US Weather Bureau Storm Warning Tower, now rubble. One particular poignant picture to look for is the one of the church. The only thing left from the old church is the steeple. The congregation is now meeting in a metal building and they have a trailer that I assume is the office. On that trailer is a banner saying, “God Is With You.” That, my friends, is true belief. One picture I was SURE to take was the Home Depot in Waveland. It is up and running and helping out the citizens of Hancock County.
After seeing the devastation, we returned to the Habitat for Humanity office. There I pulled up Jules’ video on one of the office computers for some of the volunteers to see. It was SO touching watching them watch that video. They recognized places in the pictures and were very emotional when they said what a good job she had done!
After leaving the Habitat office, I decided to find a place to eat lunch before traveling to Slidell. There is one Wendy’s open in Waveland. I went in and got in line. When I started to look around, I noticed that out of the 25 – 30 people there, I was the only woman and there were no children. Most of the families with children have moved. The population of Waveland now mostly consists of workers trying to get things back together.
After lunch I traveled to Slidell, Louisiana, and met with Nancy Wood, director of the East St. Tammany Habitat for Humanity Chapter. (On a personal note, please say a few prayers for Nancy. Her father died of Alzheimer’s last week. His disease was made worse by the storm because, when they had to evacuate, he was no longer in familiar surroundings and went “inside himself.” Also her husband of many years was just diagnosed with stage four lung cancer.) Despite her personal troubles, Nancy greeted me with open arms. We went out to the site where “our” houses are being built. I got to meet a lot of the volunteers. They come from all over the country. This week there was a group from Joliet, Illinois. I also got to meet two of the people who will eventually live in the Habitat houses. Both have been living with relatives for 15 months. Mr. Sanders said that his 13-year old son can’t wait for them to again have their own house. He is so excited that they will be in for Christmas. The other woman I spoke to said that she and her family had taken over her brother’s living room for the last 15 months. They are also anxious to get in their home. We did the check presentation in front of Mr. Sanders’ house. I told Nancy that this was a ‘labor of love’ and that on behalf of the PBC, Jr Motorsports, and The Tony Stewart Foundation, we would like to present $6000.00 to the East St. Tammany Chapter. Again I can’t tell you how appreciative everyone is for our contribution. They really need the funds.
Nancy and I then went to another site where several more Habitat houses are being built. Be sure to look in the pictures for the house of Kim and Kimberly Brown. Kimberly wrote “Kim and Kimberly Brown’s New House” on the temporary steps. Nancy told me that there is a tradition with the St Tammany Parish Habitat for the volunteers to take note cards and put bible verses on them and tack them to the wall of the house before the sheetrock is put on. They also write messages to the new homeowners on the beams. I took pictures of some of the messages the volunteers wrote to Kim and Kimberly.
After viewing the work sites, Nancy took me on a tour of the damage that can still be seen in Slidell. Slidell is on the north shore of Lake Ponchatrain, directly across the lake from New Orleans. When Katrina hit, it pushed the water from the lake toward Slidell, resulting in a 28-foot storm surge into the town. Homes that were on the water are just gone. Only pylons remain. Homes that were near the lake are either gone or severely damaged. Nancy’s daughter’s home is now only a slab. Her family is living in a FEMA trailer in Nancy’s driveway. I took pictures of the 4-plex where a very good friend of theirs lived on the top floor. They evacuated and have since moved to the town where they evacuated, just north of Baton Rouge. You can see in the pictures the car of the woman who lived in the condo below Nancy’s friend—it is under the house. There are also two other cars close-by. Nancy pointed out the red one. Its windows are blown out and it is full of dried sea grass. She said that the sea grass from the lake got all over everything. In this case, it filled up the car. Back in the 4-plex, you can see the kitchen with the dishwasher open. You can see the dining room with no walls or ceiling but the dining room furniture still sitting there. The oddest thing I saw was a 2-pound can of Folgers coffee just sitting there in the hall beside the kitchen. We also saw corelle dishes that were unbroken. Out back was the boat sideways in the boat shed. She said her daughter’s refrigerator was found about a quarter of a mile away with one door still on it and the kids’ artwork still taped to the door.
Nancy told me that the high school was destroyed. They had to move kids around using the middle school and elementary schools. There are two Catholic schools in Slidell. One was destroyed and the other was “just” flooded. They ended up using the flooded school. One school went to school from 6 am – noon and the other from 1 pm to 7 pm. This was for all of last school year. I didn’t ask if they are still doing that this school year.
We then headed back to the office and said our goodbyes. As I got back on the interstate for the trip back to Baton Rouge, the song from Jules’ video, “Who Says You Can’t Go Home?”, came on the radio. I passed two of the ever-present FEMA trailers and two of the new “Katrina Cottages” being hauled to families in need. The people of the Gulf Coast are dealing with a “new normal.” What they once knew as their life will never be again. Slowly, very slowly, progress is being made. There is just so much that has to be done. It will take a long time. Like Nancy said, “Next year this time, we will be saying it has been two years since the storm and look, there are still boats in the middle of that field.” That very well may be, but there will also be more people in homes of their own. The damage from Katrina covered an area the size of Great Britain. It cannot all be fixed in a year or even two or three. But I just want you to know that for four families, YOU made a difference. They WILL go home. For that, I join the people from Hancock County Habitat for Humanity and East St. Tammany Habitat for Humanity in wishing you the most blessed of Holidays!
Karen Adams 11-25-06
Pictures from my trip can be found here. Click on “view all” to see all 3 pages or view one page at a time. Remember that the storm was 15 months ago, not yesterday as it looks like in some of the pictures. http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q200/PBCphotos/Habitat/