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Press Releases |
We are pleased to report progess in our efforts to help our Southern neighbors. These articles from The Intelligencer/Bucks County Courier Times and the Sea Coast Echo help to tell our story. |
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Humanitarian, Doylestown attorney Bill Eastburn, 75 By FREDA SAVANA The Intelligencer Bill Eastburn made a difference. Whether practicing law, caring for his family or improving the lives of strangers across the country, he never failed to bring out the best in others. The distinguished attorney and committed humanitarian died Friday afternoon at his Buckingham home after battling lung cancer. A nonsmoker, he was 75. For nearly five decades, Eastburn practiced law with Eastburn and Gray, a 120-year-old Doylestown firm. Early in his career he also served as Bucks County assistant district attorney. However, Eastburn’s life work extended far beyond his skilled legal expertise. A gifted leader, he inspired people to give of themselves and, time after time, found opportunities to employ his motto to “take a negative and turn it into a positive.” Most recently, he was instrumental in creating the Bucks Mont Katrina Relief Project, which aided victims of Hurricane Katrina, raising more than $2 million in cash and donations for the people of Hancock County, Miss. “He was the driver of the whole bus,” said Mike Scobey, Intelligencer publisher and director of the print division of Calkins Media, who worked with Eastburn on the ambitious project. “He inspired people to get involved. He energized people.” Through the combined efforts of many, including Jon Otto, Bob Byers and the Salvation Army, the Katrina project successfully built a child-care center and is in the process of building an animal shelter. Years earlier, it was the plight of Navajo men that moved Eastburn to action. While in Rome, attending the elevation of Archbishop Bevilacqua to cardinal, Eastburn learned from a New Mexico bishop that 17 American Indians froze to death from a lack of blankets. Eastburn and his wife, Connie, subsequently founded Americans for Native Americans, a grass-roots nonprofit organization that has been raising money for humanitarian efforts in the Southwest for more than 15 years. “It is truly a community effort,” said Cap Roberts of Erwinna, who has worked with ANA for years. “I consider it a privilege to know Bill and be part of an effort to do what I can, when I can and if I can,” said Roberts. He called the organization an “important legacy” of Eastburn’s. Connie Eastburn, who spoke Saturday of her husband’s “infectious spirit,” said the work of ANA will go on. It was Bill Eastburn’s unparalleled ability to bring disparate people together for a common purpose that set him apart, said those who knew him well. “He was a high-energy guy. When he saw something, he was relentless in pursuing it,” said Rod Eastburn, an attorney in the same law firm who worked with Bill Eastburn for some 30 years. “He was always trying to help people.” Eastburn graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law and joined the bar in 1962. He started his career with the Bucks County district attorney’s office, and then the Office of Attorney General of Pennsylvania. He has served as president of the Bucks County Bar Association, chairman of the Delaware Valley Bar Association and president of the Pennsylvania Bar Foundation. In the parking lot of his Doylestown office in July 1993, a mentally unstable former client attempted to kill Eastburn by shooting him in the chest with a revolver. Critically injured, he made a full recovery and went on to organize Voice of Reason with Dr. Bill Schwab, a trauma surgeon at the University of Pennsylvania, who operated on him. The group works to reduce gun violence. Eastburn has lent his expertise to many other local organizations, including: board member of the Heritage Conservancy, chairman of the Bucks County Commission on Violence Prevention Task Force, board member of the Free Clinic of Doylestown Hospital and co-founder and chairman of TODAY drug treatment program. For Eastburn’s family, which includes five children and 12 grandchildren, his death will leave a void that can never be filled. His 101-year-old mother, Nancy W. Eastburn, also survives him. His daughter Holly MacEwan of Falmouth, Maine, said this: “My overwhelming feeling is one of love and profound gratitude for being his daughter. He has shown us every day of our lives that the true joy in life is giving to others. We will all carry that forward.” When Eastburn received Bucks County’s Distinguished Citizen Award in 2007, he remained humble, saying he and his wife of 47 years were the ones who were blessed. “Connie and I want to send the community a message. If our lives stand for anything, it’s to put it back because you get so much more out of life by putting it back. What Connie and I have done together — and it has been together — is absolutely enriching,” he said. Obituary and Memorial Service information William H. Eastburn III Humanitarian, prominent lawyer and philanthropist William H. Eastburn III, Esquire of Doylestown, passed away on Friday, March 7, 2008, following a courageous battle with cancer. He died at home surrounded by his adoring family. Born in Germantown, Pa., in 1932, Bill was the son of Nancy W. Eastburn, age 101, who survives him, and William H. Eastburn II. A man of great energy and passion, Bill was educated at Mount Hermon School in Northfield, Mass. He received his bachelor of arts degree with honors from Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., where he was national president of Delta Kappa Epsilon. Having a lifelong interest in Trinity, he was extremely proud of the fact that three of his children as well as a son-in-law and daughter-in-law also attended his college. He earned his law degree at the University of Pennsylvania, Class of 1959. While in law school, he met his wife, Constance Allen, with whom he shared his life since the time he took her out on her 21st birthday. Connie and Bill were married 47 years. Bill's legal career began at Eastburn and Gray in 1959. Although the firm was a small, general practice firm at the time, Bill soon developed a specialty in land use and real estate. As his practice grew, he mentored many younger attorneys. Over the years, Bill continued this pattern of developing a new expertise, drawing a larger client base and training associates to follow in his footsteps. Bill nevertheless remained loyal to and actively worked with many long-term clients with whom he shared more than 45 years of history and memories. His outstanding skills as a lawyer, leader, manager, and mentor were in large part responsible for Eastburn and Gray's reputation and growth as an outstanding law firm of specialists. Bill's humanitarian and philanthropic efforts are renowned, and he worked diligently throughout his life to establish organizations and programs to advance the wellbeing of others. His passionate and courageous spirit have been evident throughout his life, from the time he served as a lifeguard at the age of 25. During the hurricane of 1958, Bill made five trips into deep water 100 yards offshore in dense fog, saving the lives of four people who were caught in a sudden and strong riptide. His heroic efforts were cited by the then Governor of Rhode Island. Dr. John Howell, director of TODAY Inc. (the adolescent substance abuse facility) states: "Bill Eastburn was truly a community leader and a visionary. In 1970, he was a founder of TODAY Inc. in Newtown. Each year TODAY touches the lives of thousands of kids and families through its various services. Since its inception, over 20,000 young people have completed the inpatient program. During the past 38 years, Bill maintained a high level of involvement serving as chairman of the board of directors. While in Rome in 1991, attending the elevation of Archbishop Bevilacqua to the position of Cardinal, Connie, Bill, and the late Monsignor Teller were informed by Bishop Donald Pelotte of New Mexico that 17 Navajo men had perished the previous year because of a lack of blankets. In response to the need, they founded Americans for Native Americans, which is still actively involved with improving the quality of life for Native Americans. Bill's personal mantra, "Take a negative and turn it into a positive" is demonstrated in the founding of Voice of Reason. Following an attempt on his life, in July of 1993, when a mentally unstable former client shot him with a .38 caliber revolver in the parking lot of his Doylestown office, Eastburn founded, and served as chairman of the board of, the Voice of Reason, an organization of people committed to reducing gun violence without infringing on personal liberties. He also served as chairman of the Bucks County Commission on Violence Prevention Task Force (1995 to present) and chairman of the Bucks County Implementation Commission on Violence Prevention (1996 to present). Dr. William Schwab at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania states, "Nobody that I know lives closer to how God wants us to live. He taught me to put good into everything I do. There are few people who have this effect on the world. He changed the world! He was the best of men. He was a giant. He was generous and the most wonderful of friends." When Connie recently said to Judge Edmund V. Ludwig, "He is your best friend, isn't he?" Ludwig replied, "Bill is everyone's best friend." In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Bill found himself losing sleep because of his concern for its victims. In response, he founded the Bucks-Mont Katrina Relief Fund, a coalition of agencies and individuals who have raised more than two million in cash and in-kind services to rebuild the devastated towns of Waveland and Bay St. Louis in Mississippi. "This could be a model for the whole country, where a community that is as healthy and vibrant as those of Bucks and Eastern Montgomery County can reach out to another community that has been destroyed and help them to rebuild. And if communities all over the country would do this, it would be a great model," Bill said. In partnership with the Salvation Army, they have completed a childcare center and numerous rebuilding projects are currently in process including an animal center, which is very close to Bill's heart. Additionally, Eastburn served on the board of directors of the Western Health Foundations, the Bucks County Heritage Conservancy, First Service Bank and its executive committee, the Free Clinic of Doylestown Hospital, Wealth Management Board of National Penn Bank, and as a corporation member of the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine. He also served on various fundraising committees. "It's not too often that you meet someone with a heart of gold, a brilliant mind, a humanitarian spirit, and a life that is truly inspirational to me and to all who know him," Susan Snyder, writer. He received the 1991 Humanitarian of the Year Award from the Bucks County Chamber of Commerce and the 2007 Citizens of Distinction Award by the Board of Bucks County Commissioners. During his distinguished career, Bill was a former chairman of the Human Services Council of Bucks County and Task Force. His memberships include: the Pennsylvania Trial Court Nominating Commission (1977 and 1990); Faculty, Pennsylvania College of the Judiciary (1998); Bucks County Bar Association (President, 1976-1977); Pennsylvania House of Delegates, 1982-1988 and 1991; Pennsylvania Bar Foundation (Chair, 1995); Board of Governors, 1988-1991 and American Bar Associations; American Judicature Society; The Association of Trial Lawyers of America. He was also a delegate to the Third Circuit Judicial Conference, 1986, a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, and a Trustee of Peddler's Village, for five years. When asked recently by a reporter what he considered his greatest accomplishment, he quickly responded, "My five outstanding children." Bill is survived by his beloved wife of 47 years, Connie Allen Eastburn. He is the father of five loving children, Page Eastburn O'Rourke and her husband, Kevin, of Yarmouth, Maine, Holly Eastburn MacEwan and her husband, Alan, of Falmouth, Maine, William H. Eastburn IV and his wife, Charlotte, of New Hope, Christopher A. Eastburn and his wife, Jane, of Arlington, Mass., and Brooke Eastburn and her husband, Michael, of Los Angeles, Calif. He was affectionately known as Boppa to his 12 adoring grandchildren, Griffin and Duncan O'Rourke, Ellie, Graham, and Louisa MacEwan, Henry and Lydia Eastburn, Adrian and Simon Rigopulos, Quinn Eastburn, and Eva and William Eastburn Lauterbach. Bill was the brother of Gail Eastburn Schultz of Helendale, Calif., and the late Linda Eastburn of Pinehurst, N.C. He attended Doylestown Presbyterian Church in Doylestown. In 1981, he founded a men's Bible study affectionately known as the "Dawn Patrol" which continues to enrich the lives of its members. An Ecumenical memorial service celebrating Bill's life, distinguished career, and humanitarian spirit will be held 3 p.m. Friday, April 4, at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, 235 E. State St., Doylestown. Contributions in his name may be made to any of the following organizations that Bill believed in: Salvation Army/Bucks-Mont Katrina Animal Center, Attn: Collette McBratney- BMKA 701 N. Broad St., Philadelphia, PA 19123; Americans for Native Americans, P.O. Box 1389, Doylestown, PA 18901; or Doylestown Presbyterian Church, 127 E. Court St., Doylestown, PA 18901. He has truly given back all of the gifts that he has been blessed with. He advises all people, especially future generations to "Put it back. When you get a great deal out of life, put it back." Joseph A. Fluehr III Funeral Home, New Britain |
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Artists' plight in spotlight By EDWARD LEVENSON The Intelligencer Hurricane Katrina not only wiped out many artists' studios in Bay St. Louis, Miss., it washed away their works of art. “My whole career as an artist went under water,” said Kat Fitzpatrick, who paints using heated colored beeswax in a process called encaustic. She said the floodwaters that inundated her studio deposited pigments all over the yard, creating “beautiful debris.” Fitzpatrick and two other artists from the Hancock County community were guests of honor Sept. 7 at the First Friday celebration in downtown Doylestown. The event spotlighted the Bucks-Mont Katrina Relief Project, which has raised $2.3 million in monetary and in-kind donations to help the devastated communities of Bay St. Louis and Waveland. Before the storm, the towns were like New Hope on the Gulf of Mexico, with dozens of art galleries attracting visitors and tourists. Two years later, the arts community is struggling to rebuild. “We've lost a lot of artists,” said Liz Schafer, estimating that 100 of the 300 pre-Katrina artists have not returned. Schafer, who describes herself as a “painter of music,” said about half of her 400 paintings stored in her studio were destroyed or damaged. She managed to salvage some by using pieces to create Katrina quilts. Ruth Thompson, who both paints and makes pottery, said her kiln and pottery wheels were destroyed. She is renting studio space to continue her career. Work by the three artists was for sale at First Friday and also will be shown at the Sabine Rose Gallery and Michelyn Gallery in Doylestown. An exhibition by 40 to 50 Hancock County artists is planned for next May in Doylestown. The women said they are grateful for the help to their towns from the Katrina Relief Project, which has included construction of a child day care center for Hancock County. None of the artists had been to Bucks or Montgomery counties before. “It's so humbling for people to care so much about people they don't even know,” Schafer said. The hurricane's “silver lining” is that “we get to meet all these beautiful people we never would have met except for Katrina.” Said Thompson, “They're so adamant about helping us. I've never seen such an outpouring of love and caring.” Fitzpatrick said she is impressed by the Katrina project's commitment to a long-term relationship with Hancock County. “These people are amazing,” she said. |
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Penn graduate students reach out in Pearlington By Bennie Shallbetter The Sea Coast Echo When the Bucks-Mont Katrina Relief Project shared information about its recovery efforts in Hancock County with the University of Pennsylvania, the school's Social Policy and Practice Department decided to get involved. In March and again in May, department Dean Richard Gelles and Dr. Joretha Bourjolly visited the area to conduct a social services needs assessment. Recently, a team of three graduate students arrived in Pearlington to spend a month working with the folks at the Pearlington Recovery Center. The women will concentrate primarily on conducting a door to door survey of the community that will hopefully give the center a better idea of where the community stands with regard to population, degree of recovery, unmet needs and future evacuation requirements of the residents. The women will also carry the news to residents that if they plan to rebuild, they need to get a permit, now. With new FEMA guidelines expected to get even more stringent, obtaining a building permit now is a good idea, said center coordinator Laurie Spaschak. Though the information on the community's needs will be recorded to help with recovery efforts, all individual answers will be confidential, said Spaschak. The women will fill out a survey sheet for each household and ask for information on age and number of family members, medical needs and transportation needs for appointments, condition of septic and water systems, rebuilding plans, funding availability from the grant or other sources for those plans, whether the household has registered for help with a case manager, immediate needs such as mortgage, food or utility help, and evacuation plans for a future storm. A list of helpful numbers will also be distributed. The center hopes the information will help to reassess the needs of Pearlington, which may have been underestimated, workers there think. The arrival of 140 children to camp at the old library, rather than the expected 60 or 70, enforced that belief, said Spaschak. "People may be unaware that they can get help or they may think that they don't qualify for help," said Spaschak. "We want to make sure that people are aware of the help available and that no one falls through the cracks if they need help. The survey will also help by just having people out there checking on people who can't get out. " Team leader is Connie Hoe, a recent graduate of the university's social policy and practice department, Nambee Yun, another recent graduate, and Crystal Lucas, a first year master's student. The group hopes the experience will serve two purposes, offer them real life experience, and help the people in Hancock County. The women hope in the process of the survey, they say, that besides gathering important information, they can be compassionate listeners to people's concerns and stories. By understanding resident's hurricane experience and ensuing challenges to recovery, the women say they also hope to come up with new ways to help and build a long term relationship with the school in the community. |
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Day care ready for business By HILARY BENTMAN phillyBurbs.com WAVELAND, Miss. — A large banner hung over the front of the building, reading “Futures Filled with Hope.” There was perhaps no better sign of this than the group of toddlers tossing grass and sitting leisurely in the sun in front of their building. Hundreds of adults were also there, to recognize and celebrate the work, time and money that went into the Hancock County Child Development Center, the first public building constructed in the Mississippi county after Hurricane Katrina. The $1.25 million daycare center was made possible by the Bucks-Mont Katrina Relief Project, a group of Bucks and Montgomery County residents who came together after the devastation to help those they didn't even know. “This is much more than a dedication of a building. It's a symbol to the entire country,” said Grover Friend, former CEO of Calkins Media and volunteer director of the Bucks-Mont project, who is hoping the work will serve as a national model for the cooperation among communities in future disaster situations. Through its partnership with The Salvation Army, the group so far has raised $2.65 million in financial contributions and donations of goods and services to aid the people of the twin Gulf towns of Bay St. Louis and Waveland. The 10,000-square-foot daycare center has been the group's cornerstone project since ground was broken less than a year ago. But the center was just the first stop Tuesday on a tour that also included the rebirth of a historic park and the groundbreaking on a new animal center, all Bucks-Mont projects. “Welcome to Hancock County, where God not only answers prayers but makes miracles happen, makes longtime dreams come true and always fills our future with hope,” said Lora Mederos, executive director of the Hancock County Human Resources Association. She could barely hold back the tears looking at the new building that will accommodate 124 children, including infants. The facility has 18 rooms with observation windows, brightly colored walls and children's names already assigned to cubbyholes. “The doors are set in place, the windows have been washed, the floors have been buffed. The only thing missing are the little wiggly ones we see around us,” said Jorge Diaz, a major with The Salvation Army. “We look forward to the crayon markings on the bathroom walls.” Before the hurricane, there were 12 daycare centers in Hancock County housing 1,497 children. After the storm, just three remained, with room for 171. The new center will serve working families, many of whom lived in public housing destroyed by Katrina. Families pay fees based on their income level. In total, 150 construction workers from the Delaware Valley traveled to Mississippi to work on the building. About 1,600 readers of The Intelligencer and the Bucks County Courier Times donated money, ranging from $2 to $100,000, said Intelligencer Publisher Mike Scobey, one of the founding members of the group. Employees at Fred Beans automotives also donated $113,000 worth of furnishings to outfit the new center. Lisa Cowand met members of the Bucks-Mont Group just a few days after Katrina. “We were still wet, with no shoes on, no food, no nothing,” said the vice chairwoman of the Hancock Board of Supervisors. “These people wrapped their arms around us and have not let go.” There was perhaps no one more excited about work of Bucks-Mont leaders than Charles Gray, executive director of the Hancock Historical Society. “When I die I'm going to have to talk to my grandfather, because that's not what he told me about Yankees,” Gray said. |
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Relief work will go on The Katrina Relief Project has agreed to pay Gatto $3,000 in expenses for the first two months. Friend said the group will wait to see how things develop before authorizing any other payments. Gatto, a lawyer, traveled to Hancock County in April with a group of other Bucks lawyers and relatives to do volunteer work for a week. She was so moved by her experience, she decided to make a physical move from Doylestown to the Mississippi coast. “About mid-week when I was here in April, I just felt something in my soul telling me there will be another time for me to return here, and for a longer commitment,” Gatto said. “When I got back to Doylestown, I gave myself a month, but the feeling never went away.” Her children were grown, her law practice in Bensalem could be put on hold. The only thing that remained was to convince her husband, Dennis McKenna, that this was a good idea. After a few conversations, she said, he came around. Now, Gatto is living in a rented room in Gulfport, about 30 minutes from the Bay Waveland area. She is working from a folding table in the corner of the Hancock County Chamber of Commerce in Bay St. Louis. She has spent her first two weeks meeting as many people in the area as she can and trying to help coordinate the next few groups of Bucks-Mont volunteers who are about to head down to Hancock County. |
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Local effort spawned outpouring of support By SARAH LARSON The Intelligencer Hurricane Katrina unleashed a furious storm on the southern United States, but it also unleashed a flood of goodwill from around the country to the survivors. Here at home, a group that came to be called the Bucks-Mont Bay-Waveland Katrina Relief Project designed what they believed was a new model for disaster assistance. What if an entire unscathed community adopted one devastated community? What if that partnership could deepen over time, forging relationships between families, between schools, between community groups, between friends? And what if it worked? If it worked, they reasoned, it could be a blueprint for a new way to help those in need. Now, one year later, most people involved in the Katrina Relief Project — from the donors here at home to the recipients in Hancock County, Miss. — would say it's been a nearly unqualified success. “When we started, we had no idea whether we'd still be together a year later,” said Bill Eastburn, the Doylestown attorney who hatched the idea for the project. “Now, we're still growing stronger and working on all these new initiatives. There is just so much to be done. I don't think we had any concept of what the needs were when we went in there.” Hurricane Katrina hit the morning of Aug. 29, 2005. Most of us watched in horror over the next few days as civilization seemed to break down. People caught in the path of the storm were without clean water, they had no food, nowhere to sleep. Telephones didn't work, roads were nearly impassable. Those of us safe in the north watched on television as the plight down south grew more desperate by the hour. Only once the storm victims' first, most critical needs were met did we all begin to realize the utter devastation the storm had caused. The region faced a massive job of rebuilding. At his home in Doylestown Township, Eastburn woke up one morning at 3 a.m. a few days after the storm. “I had this thought that the way we were handling Katrina-type catastrophes was ill advised, and that the private sector could do a better job,” he said. “FEMA certainly proved to be inadequate.” Later, he called two people. To Intelligencer publisher Mike Scobey, he pitched the idea of an effort that would stretch across Bucks and eastern Montgomery counties to raise money for Katrina victims. Scobey pledged the newspaper's support. “We have had a very successful Christmas fund, where our readers pledged money to support our local Bucks County Opportunity Council, and we thought our readers would step up to the plate and respond to the need in Louisiana and Mississippi,” Scobey said. “We know that local community newspapers can be a catalyst to bring support to any good cause and effort. And we could tell the story of our community efforts.” The Intelligencer's sister paper, the Courier Times, soon joined the effort and since then, more than 50 news stories have been written about the Katrina Relief Project. Reporters and photographers have traveled to Hancock County five times to describe life in the wake of the storm and how the Bucks Mont group is helping. Next, Eastburn called on Bob Byers Sr., of Byers Choice Ltd., “the number one philanthropist in Bucks County and the most caring person I know.” Byers not only agreed to become one of the project's founders, he and his family also donated $100,000 to kick-start the fundraising. In the months since, Byers has said repeatedly that he and the other donors are getting more out of the experience than the recipients in Mississippi. It was Byers who suggested partnering with The Salvation Army; he serves on the charity's national advisory board. The Army agreed, and named Collette McBratney as its liaison to the project. Then the three leaders put out the call to their considerable network of friends and business associates across the area. The first general meeting of people interested in helping the new Katrina Relief Project drew more than 140 community leaders from across Central and Upper Bucks and Eastern Montgomery. At the end of September, project leaders announced that they have chosen the Mississippi communities of Bay St. Louis and Waveland, neighboring towns on the Gulf Coast that were directly assaulted by what the National Weather Service now calls the costliest U.S. hurricane on record. Working with governmental leaders in Hancock County, the Bucks Mont group decided it will build a new day-care center. Katrina wiped out several centers, leaving parents with no one to care for their young children. Without such care, parents couldn't begin tackling rebuilding their homes, much less return to work. Jon Otto, of the commercial development company Penn Valley Constructors, was tapped to oversee construction of the $1.25 million center. Otto has donated untold hours of his time and paid for his own travel on at least seven trips to Hancock County to supervise the project. Over the past 12 months, the Bucks-Mont Bay-Waveland Katrina Relief Project has drawn together hundreds if not thousands of southeastern Pennsylvania residents to help in whatever way they could. The ongoing effort has been massive. Here are but a few of the project's accomplishments: · Hundreds of people from across the area donated money to the effort. Donations from The Intelligencer's readers came in amounts ranging from $10 to $500. Big money donors wrote checks, too. As of last week, the total cash raised to date stood at $1,206,573.64. · Dozens of contractors from across southeastern Pennsylvania have donated building supplies and their workers' labor and travel to Hancock County to help build the day care center. These in-kind donations have been estimated as worth at least $800,000. · Employees of Fred Beans car dealerships donated more than $75,000, and Fred and Beth Beans donated the remaining $35,000 to outfit the inside of the day-care center. · Hundreds of families across the area spent what must have amounted to tens of thousands of dollars to adopt families in Hancock County for Christmas. Some even gave up buying their own Christmas presents so they could do more for their adopted families. Donors sent doll houses, stuffed animals, video games, bicycles, even a washer and dryer. Many added in holiday decorations and treats like home-baked cookies for the Mississippi families. · Several area teenagers devised service projects in conjunction with the relief effort. Some sold specially designed magnets to raise money for the fund, while others ran various fundraisers. Andy Huber, a senior last year at Council Rock North, collected used musical instruments and money to repair them. The drive was so successful that he was able to restock the bands at two high schools in Bay St. Louis, the public school, Bay High, and St. Stanislaus College, a Catholic all-boys school. · Churches and their leaders and members have played an important role in the effort. Matt Reed, a pastor at Calvary Church in Hilltown Township, has organized several work trips to Hancock County. Three Lutheran churches in Central Bucks have held several fundraisers enabling them to send more than $45,000 to the Lutheran Church of the Pines in Waveland to help the flooded church restore its interior. · Several Bucks County residents opened their homes this summer to teachers from the Bay Waveland School District for a relaxing vacation in the northeast. · Bucks County history buffs are raising money to restore Bay St. Louis' Tercentenary Park, a small memorial park on the town's oceanfront that marks the 300th anniversary of its discovery. A wine and cheese fundraiser will be held at the Mercer Museum on Sept. 26. · After learning the wait to see a psychiatric or drug and alcohol counselor in Hancock County was about eight weeks, the group donated $75,000 to Gulf Coast Mental Health. The money will be used to pay the salaries of two new counselors, significantly cutting the waiting time for those services. That money came through the larger Katrina Relief Project from CB Cares, the North Penn YMCA and the United Way of Bucks County. One year after Katrina, the Bucks Mont group is still in full swing. Project leaders meet every month, with large, community meetings about every quarter. The day-care center is rising from the Mississippi earth, the only new public building being built in Hancock County since the storm. It is on track to open in November, with a celebration to mark the event in early December. Plans to help raise money to build a new animal shelter for Hancock County are underway. A committee, headed by Nockamixon's Mike Moss, has been formed and is moving ahead with ideas, while Hancock County leaders try to find a site for the shelter. And a new effort is forming to give grants to Hancock County homeowners to rebuild their homes if they have received little or no money from FEMA or their insurance money. The Bucks-Mont group is partnering with City Team Ministries, which has been working in Hancock County since the storm, to review applicants and select families to help. Each family would get $20,000. Bob Byers has once again led the way, writing the first $20,000 check to kick off the program. A team of skilled builders from the area already has spent a week in Hancock County, donating their skills and time to help three families rebuild their homes. Another team is set to go down in early September. As the Bucks-Mont effort continues to expand, its leaders have visions of taking the blueprint nationwide. “Our ultimate hope is to get other communities to adopt a similar model,” Eastburn said, “because we seem to have catastrophes more often now.” |
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Destruction still evident |
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Rebuilding, one house at a time |
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