In October of 2005, I was working as a kitchen designer at the Home Depot in Falls Church, Virginia. One day, a friend of mine, Bart Tucker, came into the store and announced that he a 7 others were going to Biloxi, Ms. the next day to help with Hurricane Katrina recovery and would I like to come with them. Little short notice, and my heart was moved to respond, but in November I used a week of vacation and headed to Biloxi. Bart had been the head of Habitat/Northern Virginia and had a pretty solid base of dedicated volunteers who would come out on a regular basis to help build houses with our affiliate. The first group that went down were primarily these folks. Bart has a great gift of asking people to help and then you cant say no. If he asks you, to save time, its probably better to just go ahead and agree right away. Anyway, he asked me and I showed up in November of 05. You know, after Katrina hit, most of the press coverage from CNN and Anderson Cooper with his black t-shirt was centered on New Orleans. The majority of the damage done there was due to the man-made levees that failed, thereby flooding a city that was built below sea level. Who's idea was that anyway? Bart felt called to the almost ignored but very needy Gulf coast of Mississippi. Biloxi is a small working class town right on the Gulf of Mexico. On August 29, 2005,Hurricane Katrina caused a 26' tall storm surge that drove the waters of the gulf right over the city. One woman who did not evacuate, but chose to ride out the storm at her home said that it was like watching a bathtub fill up. The majority of the homes in Biloxi got 8 to 10 feet of water in their homes. A lot of the homes were built on cinderblock piers, 2-3 feet off the ground and when the waters rose that 8 feet in three hours time, many of the homes just up and floated down the street, bobbing like boats. Refrigerators, furniture were floating around in the homes. For the first few days, in the heat of Mississippi summer, there was no water, no electricity, complete devastation. The water came up, did its damage and then in 3-4 more hours receeded, leaving in it's wake a giant mess. Laundry in the trees. Everything soaked with mud. The first group of volunteers that went down set about the process of "mucking out" homes. All the contents of the home, the sheetrock from the walls, the mud from the gulf, were all dragged out to the street (once the streets were cleared of houses, trees, downed electric lines, etc.) and the city would come by and pick the debris up and haul it away. During the first trip, some 27 homes got mucked out. Down to the bones. To dry out and then be treated for black mold. by the time I was there in November, a number of other volunteer organizations were on the scene. The Red Cross was there with their IRV's (trucks that would drive through the neighborhoods distributing hot meals for the people. Samaritan's Purse,(Franklin Graham's organization) set up a camp on the beach and was both restoring homes and also providing free of charge building materials for homeowners and groups like ours that were there helping families rebuild their homes. The Salvation Army was giving grants of up to $10,000 for material for each homeowner that passed the requirements. Generally, all of the nearly 100 homes which we helped restore, the homeowners recieved little or nothing from the insurance companies.(Pause for booing and hissing). But I get ahead of myself. After my week in November, I went again in January of 06 and at that time was staying at the former convent at Our Lady of Fatima church. I was lying in the bunk bed around 1 in the morning and I received a plan from Heavenly Father. He said, Here's what you do- Get a transfer from the Virginia Home Depot to the one in Biloxi and work nights and weekends to pay the bills and volunteer with Habitat/NV during the day and we'll do that for a year. The song- "ive got fields and commitments that cost a pretty sum, pray hold me excused I cannot come" came to mind. A wife and five kids, a job and mortgage? I fought it for a bit, but when I finally accepted the call, all of the pieces fell into place, I bought a used RV and headed to Biloxi. Bart, once we had things ramped up, had groups of volunteers coming not only from northern Va. cut from all over the country. Anywhere from 40 to 120 volunteers every week would make themselves available to come help complete strangers. It was really an amazing phenomena that occurred during that time. My one year came and went. After the first year there, Bart offered me the job of the one paid volunteer on staff and I continued my mission as construction director (also known as herder of the cats) in keeping the volunteers happy and safe and making sure they had all the tools and materials they needed and lessons in how to do such and such. I used to drive around in an old grey 1977 Ford Econoline van to all of the jobs. There were times when we had up to ten houses going on at the same time. Many of the homeowners were Vietnamese and many times too, they prepared great lunches for the volunteers of shrimp, eggrolls and other treats and the regular volunteers noticed that I had a knack of showing up just as lunch came out. Another volunteer suggested that I get an ice-cream truck bell on the van. during the second year there, I prepared a float for the local Mardi-Gras parade for the volunteers to ride on. It was a blast seeing the outpouring of appreciation from all of the people of Biloxi. Most of the people who are coming back are back in their homes now. I went back home after 2 1/2 years back to the working world, but I sorely missed the world of volunteerism. To be continued.