 GCN Exclusive Report Hope Is Alive In Bay St. Louis The power of asking for help in many ways is not weakness, but our strength. People everywhere are responding to city's list of needs published on GulfCoastNews.com From Mark Proulx - Special to GCN Filed 4/9/06 Bay St. Louis public officials and my family have always had a special connection. Nothing showed me more how strong our connections are or how powerful our faith in humanity than this email Ms. Mike Cuevas with the City of Bay St. Louis sent me just recently. Ms. Mike (as she is called, is the city's administrator). In it, we find that the power of this nation is not the government, as certain high ranking members are finding out…the power of this nation are its people, from whom all blessings flow. We make hope possible, sometimes anonymously, but every bit of it greatly appreciated…and thanks to all of you reading this. Hope is certainly alive and well here at home. _____________ “Dear Mark, Thank you, a thousand times, thank you to GulfCoastNews.com for publishing the needs list for the city of Bay Saint Louis. The response has been overwhelming. However you have built your readership, GCN has done a great service for the recovery of Bay Saint Louis, its administration and its citizens. To update your readers on how everyone has responded to the needs list, we have received the following help: From a professor of Luther College, Decora, Iowa: miscellaneous office supplies that addressed some of the needs of the Mayor's office, Building, Administration, and Fire departments. (She cleaned out her supply closet and send the GCN article on to others at the college for them to do the same thing!) From our sister city, Port Townsend, WA: miscellaneous offices supplies and two computers, one for the city and one for a local business, plus appliances and building materials and bicycles! From a citizen: $1000 credited to our W.A. McDonald Building Supply account. It was his contribution to keeping his city going. From former Gulf Coast residents now living in North Carolina: four hand held radios, with chargers, a credit to our Fuelman account and miscellaneous office supplies. (This was our first received response. They had a small credit with Fuelman and had it directed to our account and cleaned out their office supply closet of the extras they had on hand. It was like Christmas in the office when we opened the delivery!) From World Care (1st delivery): phone cards (used for the Mayor's phone to defray his city cell phone expenses), additional gift cards distributed in an employee lottery. From a Overland Park, KS public works department: a significant payment to the Public Works department fuel account. Money was raised from an employee sponsored cook outs, bake sales and passing the hat. From New Jersey resident: a 4th and 5th grade pen pal program started. From the Katrina Coalition: mental health assistance partnership with CityTeam Ministries. In addition to the first four hand held radios another donor will be bringing more to us that will be used to replace some lost in the storm for our public works department. These are some of the blessings we have received from your publication of our needs list. I have been in correspondence with many individuals, city representatives and others who are working on helping us meet the needs list. Sunday our "Moore Friends for Mississippi" from NC are off loading a truck with supplies for the hospital and schools with two pick up trucks and two copiers for the city. For the last six months American citizens have helped us every day in every way that they could. It is amazing and overwhelming. Let me stress that every pen, ream of paper, gallon of gas donated to the city of Bay Saint Louis helps to pay the wages of a city worker, keeping his or her family with income and health benefits. Please continue to publish my email address (bsldepot@yahoo.com) for those interested in continuing support. Our list is updated daily as deliveries are received, so we don't ask for more than we need. There have been many offers of books for our schools and libraries. Currently we are "book rich" because our storage space, both in the schools, libraries and FEMA trailers is really limited. The time for book donations will come as our new elementary schools and two rural libraries are replaced. There are lots of good things going on that encourage me about how quickly we may recover from Katrina. Here's a list of successes: ON THE MEDICAL FRONT 1. Hancock Medical Center is recovering, but they, too, need a faster response from FEMA with funding assistance. The HMC laboratory is now up to full service and a new radiology contract will bring this service back to full time status by the end of April. In addition we have gained the services of a new, full-time, primary care physician, our out-patient and full surgery department is back at work. While all these notes are good news, we still have a long way to go, but we can confidently tell people they can return home with adequate medical care being provided on a local basis. 2. The search for space for Coastal Family Health to re-open full time is in high gear. Coastal is our resource for medical care for the uninsured or those with limited means. It will take them 7-10 days to get the clinic up and running as soon as we find them a space. 3. The Loudoun Medical Group that has sponsored and staffed our free medical clinic will be working with HMC to locate a medical home for all of our residents who have lost their local physicians due to relocations after Katrina. This partnership is working towards a smooth transition to full time medical care being available to all, regardless of their finanical situation. 4. HMC has re-opened their Kiln and Port Bienville clinics to full time status, to serve the needs of our industrial park employees and rural residents in two areas of Hancock County. ON THE HOME RECOVERY FRONT 1. With a generous donation from our sister city, Nutley, NJ, 60 citizens recently received $250 gift certificates to either W.A. McDonald or Baily Lumber to purchase needed supplies to rebuild their homes through a local lottery. 2. A second lottery is being planned for gift certificates with donations received from Amherst, MA and other gift cards that have been sent for the Bay's recovery. 3. Volunteers, especially young people, have been pouring in from throughout the country helping with everything that needs to be done to get our people back in their homes as quickly and safely as possible. Members of the Menonite faith put on a roof faster than anyone I've ever seen. Getting a safe roof is the first big construction step to protecting all the work that needs to be done on the interior. ON THE PERSONAL FRONT Wednesday, April 5 will go down as a memorable day for me - I got to sleep in a real bed, in my real bedroom, with real floors! This is a major milestone in recovery for me. From a lawn chair on my driveway, to an air mattress in my office, to a 4" foam mattress on plywood in my FEMA trailer to a real bed. I've come a long way in 6+ months! I could do this, thanks to the kindness of strangers who have taken me on as their cause, not because I had the energy to take care of myself. These volunteers have helped me survive, just as all the others who have given of their time and resources. Their care for me allowed me to devote my days to helping my community recover without the distractions of my personal losses. God has blessed us so much, personally and collectively. Once again, thank you GCN. I'll keep you apprised of our progress. Take care and God bless you all. Ms Mike” More Information: Six Months After Katrina: What Bay St. Louis Needs - GCN
Contact the author: mxpowerdive@hotmail.com
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