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Good Deeds Shelter Lives up to its Name
Written by
Holly Wiemers
, Special to Redcross.org
Friday, November 18, 2005 — GULFPORT, Miss. – When disaster strikes, you hear a lot about picking up the pieces. For so many affected in the Gulf Coast region, even the pieces were shattered and scattered by the powerful one-two punch of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
The staff at the Good Deeds Community Center, an American Red Cross shelter in Gulfport, Miss., is making it their mission to help shelter residents pick up and pull together any pieces of their lives that might be left. Where the fragments of former lives have disappeared completely, they’re working to find new sources that might help residents move forward with lives that were put on hold after the storms.
One resident getting help from Red Cross shelter staff is Mississippi native Danny Westbrook who, like so many others, lost everything in the storms.
An ironworker by trade, Westbrook is finding it hard to make a living these days. He has no vehicle in a time when getting around is vital to finding work, and finding work that pays well and consistently can be a challenge. With help from Good Deeds staff, he’s on his way to work in Florida.
“It’s a job and a chance to get straightened out,” he said. “But I’ll be coming back here to help rebuild—this is my home.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) paid for Westbrook’s plane ticket and his housing was taken care of through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Putting together the two acronyms – and the aid offered from the government agencies behind them – to create a solution for this hurricane survivor was the work of Red Cross volunteers Martha Shaw and Andrew Place.
Good Deeds residents have affectionately dubbed Shaw and Place “Scully and Mulder,” referring to the “X-files” duo famous for their problem-solving skills.
Shaw, a volunteer from Toronto, Canada, is essentially a liaison between residents and government agencies and other relief programs. Place, who hails from Pittsburgh, Pa., serves as shelter manager. Together, they work to pull together all of the different programs that might benefit shelter residents like Westbrook.
“For the people who are still here, all the easy ways out are gone,” said Place. “We’ve come up with a ‘Red Cross Plus,’ a hybrid of the classic Red Cross mission and working to help people help themselves.”
Some of their assistance involves educating shelter residents about programs that can help, such as the FEMA Facilitated Relocation Program (transportation option) that offers hurricane victims free one-way travel in the United States, USDA housing assistance and the Small Business Administration loan assistance.
At the same time, the staff at Good Deeds works hard to support residents in their day jobs. Approximately 30 percent of the shelter’s population works, so offering non-perishable boxed lunches to those workers as well as boxed portions of each evening’s dinner for those who return from work late helps ease the load.
For Westbrook, that was the help he needed to begin rebuilding his life.
Both Westbrook and Shaw are quick to offer the other credit. Westbrook repeatedly professes that it’s because of Shaw’s help that he has been able to start picking up the pieces while she kindly reminds him that it was his hard work that made the difference. After all, it’s not easy to return from working a 12-hour day to 130-plus roommates, and then spend a few more hours researching work opportunities online. On top of that, Westbrook has consistently made time to be a father to his 7-year-old daughter.
For now he’s just happy to be working again. He’s leaving Mississippi to do so, but insists he’ll be back. After all, this is home.
Holly Wiemers is a Public Relations professional who just moved to Lexington, Ky.
All American Red Cross disaster assistance is free, made possible by voluntary donations of time and money from the American people. You can help the victims of thousands of disasters across the country each year, disasters like the Midwest ice storms, by making a financial gift to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, which enables the Red Cross to provide shelter, food, counseling and other assistance to victims of disaster. The American Red Cross honors donor intent. If you wish to designate your donation to a specific disaster please do so at the time of your donation. Call 1-800-REDCROSS or 1-800-257-7575 (Spanish). Contributions to the Disaster Relief Fund may be sent to your local American Red Cross chapter or to the American Red Cross, P. O. Box 37243, Washington, DC 20013. Internet users can make a secure online contribution by visiting www.redcross.org.
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