Who comes to volunteer after a disaster?

The answer?

Everybody.

This week I am working with a group of 30 retirees from a church in Horseshoe Bay, Texas. The group is made up of 30 retirees all of whom are over 65. The group split itself up by gender, and I worked with the women.

These women came in with fewer skills than most groups. They had no construction experience, they moved a bit slower than the college students I was used to working with, and although they did do some lifting, you couldn’t exactly describe it as “heavy.” But by the end of the first day they were rocking and rolling, we painted the entire interior of a house.

Working with this group reaffirmed my basic belief that disaster recovery is about communities. In the best cases, there are two full communities working together: the community affected and the community of people who come to help. In the community where the disaster struck, everyone feels the impact: Young and old, rich and poor,

I’ve been responding to disasters for years now. I always feel that people appreciate my lending a hand, but while working alongside these women, I realized that something felt different. They are closer to my grandparents’ age than mine, and just by being here, they send a powerful a message to the people of Galveston:

'Just as all of you were hit by this disaster, so are all of us here to help you to recover from it.'

-Elie Lowenfeld

First Post! We (Elie and I) have been down in Galveston for a week and a day, and thought we should write about it. This trip is quite different from the trip in January since it is only the two of us. We are staying at The Alamo School, the headquarters of One Mission Galveston . There have been two groups through since we have been here, one high school inter-faith group from Boston, and a group of students from Oakland University in Michigan. Tonight we have 60 members of the cadet corps at Texas A&M arriving to work with us tomorrow.

What I have seen since I have been doing down here has been saddening, intimidating and inspiring. It is saddening to hear from hundreds of people who still need help 18 months after the storm, it is intimidating to see how much more still needs to be done, but it is inspiring to listen to the stories of hope and to see the groups of volunteers who come through and work to bring hope to individuals and the community.

I am continuously reminded of a teaching from Pirkei Avot (Teachings of the Sages) 2:20-21, "Rabbi Tarfon taught: The day is short and the task is great ... You are not obliged to finish the task, neither are you free to neglect it."

-Ben Cohen