GM FYI Blog

Sue Mead is a freelance journalist who travels the globe test-driving cars and trucks as a photojournalist/feature writer for over two dozen publications and the Internet. Sue is sending reports to the FYI Blog as she leads a group of 12 volunteers from her church in Williamstown, Massachusetts, to the hurricane-ravaged town of Slidell, Louisiana. For a week the group of adults and children will live in a local church and help the residents who are still recovering from massive storm losses. General Motors loaned the group a HUMMER H2 and a GMC Yukon Denali to transport them and their gear during their mission. David Jolin and others in the group are enhancing Sue’s words with home video clips of things they see and do.

By Sue Mead

Today was our best day on the job! We have now become a well-oiled team and with the addition of Connie Sheehy and Linda, from California, we finished the roof on our new friend Darrel’s home, completed a number of jobs at Ed’s home, and prepared for painting at Howard’s house. And that was all before noon!

After a great lunch at the church, which included shrimp gumbo, we headed to our good friend Royal’s home in Pearlington. Royal lives on a small patch of ground given to him by his friend, Buster. They both reside in small FEMA trailers and were living with brush and junk piles throughout their land, as well as trailer parts that blew apart during the hurricane.

We spent the afternoon clearing the land of all debris, burning brush piles, and to the great delight of Buster and Royal, we built a new shed for them to keep some important items in that had made it through the storm. They told us that they would be taking shelter in this well built shed next time a storm came… or if they loose their FEMA campers.

Chandra and Ashley prepared dinner at the church and brought it out to Pearlington. Buster and Royal smoked a pork roast in an outside roaster and prepared hors d’oeuvres. Aaron and John from Ohio joined us, and contributed the funds to purchase the wood for the shed. We presented Royal with a cake with his name on it, as well as a prayer shawl that was made by the ladies of CBC in Williamstown. Each of our youth was given $50 to share with a special person that, in their eyes, was a victim of Katrina/ Rita. Hannah chose to give hers to Buster. Kyle gave his to Royal.

Despite our tired bodies and our sadness that we are here for only one more day, our spirits are higher than ever when we realized how important our work has been to others and the incredible blessing we have to do this.

Video: Working in Pearlington
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