News from the Ground - May 24, 2006

Good morning, Pearlington and "all the ships at sea."

PUBLIC MEETING: There will a public information meeting in Pearlington on Thursday, May 26 at 6:30 p.m. All residents are encouraged to be there and all volunteers in town at that time are urged to attend. Encourage all the residents you encounter to join us and let’s get some of the difficult answers. FEMA and the Salvation Army have promised to attend. See Laurie Spaschak for more details. The Pearl*Mart phone number is 228-533-0101 or email her.

Tim Goodnow and the Dog Soldiers will be in town in early June. Joining them will be my erstwhile Canadian friend Eileen Powers, making her second trip to Pearlington.

The photos above are of construction of Laurie’s new Resource Center office, located in the Pearl*Mart and the new storage shed that has been built in the field beside the school, right behind her trailer. We now have two safe storage facilities in Pearlington.

Laurie reports from the ground:

"Steve Halsey's group from River Chase United Methodist, Alabama worked tirelessly over the weekend building for us, using recycled and leftover materials donated by Doug Pennington, and other lumber and building materials donated by PDA Camp 6. Tom Dalessandri [Carbondale] and I went and loaded up a big pile of the stuff and we all got ‘er done! Once again, a combined effort from different groups making things happen here in Pearlington. We needed a storage space so badly and I didn't think it was going to happen. Another huge unexpected blessing!

And it's just in time too. Larry Charbonneau's team from Texas is due in on Thursday with a load of drywall and supplies that will enable us to finish several houses now, and more as soon as we can get the electric and plumbing done. (YES we STILL NEED LICENSED ELECTRICIANS & PLUMBERS). Jennifer Johnson's team will be here working this next week along with Larry's and a few other groups. We really need to push to get the electric and plumbing done so we can keep at the drywall work for the next few weeks, un til the supply runs out.

My new office is up - and slowly getting organized. It is nice to have a space with real file cabinets, a meeting table and computers, internet and all instead of just a table in the corner! I am still extremely busy but we have some new resident volunteers that are helping and are going to be a part of this long term recovery. Joel Adams, who has great people skills and a lot of experience in managing offices in the shipping industry, will be on hand frequently to answer phones and assist in managing the work orders aspect of the job.

Susie Sharp, an amazing woman who had her own large business, is our new "Administrative Assistant". She will be attending County Long Term Recovery Meetings and networking with other organizations and individuals to try to get resources into Pearlington. We have several other residents who have also offered to help out when they can. It's all good! The residents of Pearlington need to be a big part of their own rebuilding, from the resources and decisions down to the daily operation and hammering of nails.

This is, after all, their HOME."

Pearl's Cafe - our new volunteer food station in Pearlington