Hurricane Relief
The year of 2005 was a great irony.
On the one hand, many of us were blessed with unprecedented good fortune for which we are rightly grateful. On the other hand, for many people around the world the relentless succession of natural disasters has created tragedy on a scale none of us have seen in our lifetime.
The sweet joy of the holiday season was, for all of us, dampened by the bittersweet memory of those horrible losses.
Like you, we were unsure how to help. Certainly, contributions to the Red Cross, Save the Children, and other similar institutions help them continue their important large scale disaster relief. But we hoped that somehow we could find a more direct, more personal way to the victims.
We did.
One October day conversation with our good friends Felix and Carolyn Hill turned to the devastation recently caused by Hurricane Katrina. We learned that nearly 700 displaced survivors of the New Orleans flood had made their way north, and, since the hurricane had been crammed into the tiny West Baton Rouge Parish Community Center near Carolyn and Felix’ hometown. Some slept in the center, some in their cars, and some just outside, – but all of them arrived hungry, and tired, homeless and scared.
We also learned of two remarkable women, Albertha ‘Buddt’ Godfrey and her mother, Ida Shy who had personally taken responsibility for feeding and caring for these refugees. Where our national institutions had utterly failed, these two plain spoken women and a small clutch of supporters had stepped in and were somehow making do. Despite the collapsed transportation infrastructure, a steady stream of loaves and fishes kept making their way to Louisiana from people in Florida each helping as best they could, day after day, and week after week. Somehow the miracle was performed.
For fifty full days after the storm hit, Ms. Godfrey and Ms. Shy, along with the healthy survivors, spent nearly waking hour cooking, cleaning, feeding, distributing clothes, providing personal hygiene, and caring for the very young, the very old, and the infirm residents at the center.
Most amazingly, a couple of weeks later after everyone was in a suitable temporary shelter, Carolyn and Felix showed up at our office with a ‘refund’ check for money left over that the displaced survivors decided that they didn’t really need. We knew they need that and more, so we asked for a list of the displaced families in Port Allen who could use it most, and took the liberty of using the money we had set aside for holiday presents to send each of them a gift card.
We remain inspired by the strength and selflessness of the survivors. Our employees are proud to have dedicated resources to such a worthy cause and asked that we include this story on our webpage.
We hope that knowing this story will help us all take a moment to reflect on the great potential that rests within each of us and what we can accomplish together. Know that even in the hardest times, a passion for compassion remains a powerful force for good.