Mississippi: Post Katrina Building Projects

Posted by Rodney K. Mitchell

Message from Chris Parkinson -

We have an opportunity for you and your members. As you know, we have 29 clubs that are participating in our Pass Christian Children's Library project. Several members in the district wanted to also do a hands on project and David Ballou, President of the Wallingford Club, has stepped up to be the team leader of this project and we are partnering with the Rotary Club of Pass Christian and the Mennonites.

The team can only be 10 people and David and his wife are going to be on the team so we are looking for 8 more members. Young people are welcome to be members of the team - but they must be 15 years or older. TheMennonites and the Pass Christian Rotary Club have built 13 homes and currently have 6 more under construction. This project will involve working on these homes and will go from Sunday the 13th to Friday the 18th of April, which is the same week as the Vermont School Vacation. We didn't ask for this week - but this was the week that was available to us and it works well for people who may have a son or daughter that they would like to work on this project with.

Check your "Club Documents" for the descriptions of the circumstances of the project (MDS Trip Preparations Brochure and Pass Christian) . All costs are paid except getting to Pass Christian - some may want to drive and others may wish to fly and if you fly you would fly into Gulfport Airport. And if you fly we will arrange to have you picked up at the airport.

I did some preliminary inquiring into air travel costs and there are flights available from Manchester - though not many - at $500 and from Boston at $380. You would need to be in Pass Christian on the evening of Sunday the 13th and the work is completed Friday morning and you would be able to leave Friday Afternoon or on Saturday Morning depending on what arrangements you can make.

Dave Ballou is pretty flexible and would drive to Pass Christian - but may also fly depending on what the other members of the team would like to do. So, the first thing we need to do is find out if we have 10 people who would like to do this. We had a pretty good interest level when I sent out my last e-mail.

The other thing that you will note is that all room and board is provided - but this is in two double wide trailers - with women in one and men in the other. Also, this is a Mennonite initiative and they will provide all tools and everything you need - but they have some specific rules that you need to review to see if you are comfortable with them.

This should be a great experience, though I cannot take the time to be on the team - it would be my intent to fly down on the Thursday of the week to be with the team and to review the project and other projects that the Rotary Club of Pass Christian is involved with. I would also look to meet with Club President DH Short and District Governor Milton Wheeler. Both of these gentlemen are remarkable individuals and I have had the honor of meeting both of them before.

Please let me or Dave know if you or any of your members are interested or if you or they have any questions they can e-mail either of us or call me at 603-224-8473. We have about two to three weeks to make a decision about whether we will have a team or not. So please contact us soon if you have any interest at all.

Thanks and see you soon.

Chris