Thursday, July 19, 2007...
Katrina aftermath...Area church helping Ninth Ward students

SEAN CASEY... ThisWeek Staff Writer

The destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina reminded the nation of nature's unfathomable power. It also reminded the nation of the power that lies within each and every person.

Nearly two years after the storm ravaged the Gulf Coast, residents are still living in federally provided trailers that line the parking lots of condemned shopping centers while they try to rebuild their cities and their lives, according to Pickerington resident Cathy Fluty.

Last month, Fluty and her family joined a community-service mission organized by Pickerington's Grace Fellowship Church to Slidell, La., where she saw firsthand what challenges lie ahead for those left to pick up the pieces.

While working in Slidell, which is 20 miles outside of New Orleans, the Flutys met Charles Dillon, a pastor in St. Bernard Parish in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, one of the areas most devastated by the storm.

"He took us on a tour and we were just flabbergasted," Fluty said. "Our eyes were just opened to the need of people down there."

In the Lower Ninth Ward, Dillon showed the Flutys a neighborhood where many churches have still not returned, homes remain uninhabitable and families struggle for food.

When she asked what she could do to help, Fluty was surprised by his answer.

"'School supplies,' he told us. 'These kids don't have what they need for school.'"

Upon returning to Pickerington, Grace Fellowship parishioners took up that cause, and now through Aug. 1, the church is accepting donations of school supplies and financial donations, all of which will go directly to Lower Ninth Ward students.

Suggested donations include backpacks, loose-leaf paper, pencils, markers, folders and erasers. Donors may also give $20, which will purchase and fill a backpack for a child.

The program has enjoyed strong support so far, Fluty said, and a few other Pickerington churches have taken up collections for the mission.

Grace Fellowship has also secured contributions from Kroger and transportation company Roadway Express Inc., where Fluty's husband, Craig, is an employee, is paying to ship the supplies to New Orleans.

After she witnessed what daily life has become in post-Katrina Louisiana, Fluty said pledging herself to the recovery was not a commitment she could terminate once she got back to Ohio.

"When the storm hit, your heart just went out to those people and you just wanted to do whatever you could," she said. "We just want to help out, even if it's a little bit at a time. Every little bit counts."

We plan on doing the same thing again this year....2008

Contact the Webmaster @