E-newsletter - 04.01.2009
Operation Helping Hands Marks a Milestone
For one afternoon, they laid down their hammers, paintbrushes and shovels and picked up forks and knives for a real New Orleans-style party.
 150 volunteers, in New Orleans to help repair and rebuild hurricane damaged homes, were guests of honor at a party honoring not only them, but 20,000 like them who helped get the city back on its feet.
On Thursday, March 26, 2009, Catholic Charities Operation Helping Hands celebrated a double milestone. 20,000 volunteers have come from all over the globe and 2,500 gutting and rebuilding projects completed.
The volunteers have been as varied as the tasks they have carried out: a married couple who are painting contractors from Illinois, a group of Harvard students who felt compelled to lend a hand, a man from Metairie, Louisiana who has volunteered every Tuesday since January of 2006, schoolteachers from Virginia, AmeriCorps volunteers from every corner of the country. They represent just a fraction of the 20,000 who have volunteered to help one of the country’s most historic and charming cities get back home.
In the beginning, the volunteers gutted flood-ravaged homes. These homes belonged to the disabled, elderly and poor who had no other way to get the work done.
 It was a first step. The work progressed to hanging dry-wall, painting, landscaping and more. Skilled volunteers did the plumbing and electrical, but housewives, office workers and college professors got quick lessons in basic skills and did the rest.
The 2,500 projects that these volunteers have completed represent 2,500 families. Without the hard work and generosity of our volunteers and supporters, those homeowners would still be waiting.
Homeowners like 99 year old Harry Sluss, who lived in the Broadmoor neighborhood in New Orleans. Operation Helping Hands supervised the demolition of his flood damaged home, and the rebuild.
Harry and his wife Charlene are now back home. The turned out for the party to say ‘thank you’ to the volunteers who made it possible.
Learn More about Operation Helping Hands >
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