Rebuild New Bern

As we provide you this update, we’re elated to report that the New Bern community has dodged the Hurricane Dorian bullet—Dorian stayed far enough offshore of North Carolina to avoid compounding the damage from Hurricane Florence. For a community still very much in the recovery mode, imagining another storm is unthinkable.

So the Florence recovery journey continues unabated! Since we last updated you, we’ve completely restored another seven families to their home, but much remains to be done.

No surprise, but hurricane damage is random and unpredictable. Sometimes there is serious structural damage (see exposed floor joists below) which means we have to expose the infrastructure of the home. The good news is that the end result is the same—a completely restored and like new home! Of course what varies is the cost and number of volunteer hours required to complete the project.

No matter how many times we’ve completed our little miracle of restoring a family to their home, the smiles and joy never gets old as witnessed by the George family below. You can help in a hands on also.

We always present the family with a quilt at dedication. We use this to represent the true team effort it takes to completely restore a home. The 100 or so volunteers that work on a home are very obvious to the homeowner, but we must recognize the contribution of so many others—case management for the family, room and board for the out of town volunteers, local government agencies, etc. Finally and perhaps most importantly, the financial contribution of many. Thank you GlobalGiving for the donations that bridge the gap between “almost enough to rebuild” and “we can do this now!”

Links:

• Come volunteer with us! Follow this link to register!