HODR-Cedar Rapids

I am guessing many of you have seen this, but if not, it is about ten minutes and will bring back many memories of working in Iowa!

Another Cedar Rapids Thank you!

Friends,
A million thanks to all of you who came out here to help with the flood
effort. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to see such generosity and
selflessness.
As a resident who has done hours of work to help my neighbors, I can't even
imagine the sacrifices you endured to help out a city of complete strangers.
My husband, and I got to meet some of you as you worked on my friend's house
one Sunday afternoon. I was amazed at the enormous progress you had made.
The world is full of angels, and you are proof of that. Thanks again, for your
help and that reminder.
Sincerely, Mary M.

knocking a window out

One of the really cool things about flickr is they now accept short videos too. Here is one Laura took of me knocking out a window.

A thank you from a Cedar Rapids resident

We received the following letter which will be included in its entirety:

Dear Bona Responds Volunteers,

We send you more greetings, thanks and appreciation from a weary but determined Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Sunday afternoon we did what we have done in so many free moments since June 11^th. The two of us served in some volunteer capacity around our city, then drove through the battered neighborhoods.

Yesterday we drove by the house owned by our friend Joyce—and there were all these helpful people in masks, and two St. Bonaventure vans parked on the street. Knowing little about your school but seeing such obvious volunteer spirit, we stopped by to see how the house was looking. (My wife, Mary, Joyce and others worked on this same house a few days ago to begin the recovery.)

What we found was a GREAT DEAL of progress. It was so welcome a sight, work on one more house on one more block of 1,300 ravaged blocks of our city. We also found this humble but gracious spirit, such lovely people who gave up a college break to help us. Young people, faculty, people who cared so much, gave us so much.

I was overcome with emotion in that dusty, noisy moment at the curb. I am becoming so even now in typing these words. Please accept one more grateful THANK YOU from Iowans-- to you, the Empire State Angels who have demonstrated their faith and hopeful helpfulness to former strangers who are now appreciative neighbors.

With Grateful Thanks,

Steve C.

BonaResponds - Iowa

BonaResponds - Iowa
Originally uploaded by Nif.

Steve and Rob gutting a home. This is part of Jen's many pictures of the trip. More (with more still to come) are available here.

Mike Shoveling wood chips

Mike Shoveling wood chips
Originally uploaded by FinanceProfessor.

Hard day today. We worked on parks in Cedar Rapids with HODR.

Good crew!

many more pictures are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/financeprofessor/sets/72157607949635315/

Made it to Cedar Rapids

Just to let everyone know, we made it here. 4 AM central time, so under 15 hours. :)

catch 2 hours sleep and work soon.

Will keep you posted.

Plans for Iowa

There are 14 people going.

We will be leaving at 2:30pm pm Friday from over by the maintenance building.

We will be going to Cedar Rapids. Please be sure to bring sleeping bags, boots, etc...
For a list of what to take consider this post from many trips ago, but still works. Two additions: pack as light as possible and please use soft bags (gym bags go under seats, suitcases do not


Please have the forms all filled out:
Necessary forms 1, 2, 3

see you on Friday!

We will return after work on Monday...so get to SBU on Tues.

Iowa Announcement

THIS IS NOT FINAL. WE ARE STILL LOOKING FOR DRIVERS.

Because we have been unable to get more drivers, at the current time we will only be taking one van. If we can get more drivers approved (they must be either over 25 or a SBU graduate student and in either case have a good driving record), we will take two vans.

This is a problem since we have more people wanting to go than can fit in a van. So, rather than raise prices (which the economist in me knows is what we should do), we will limit those who can go. The pecking order will be those who went in July get first priority, leaders who have been to at least two of this semesters events and helped plan the events get second priority, and then it will be on a first come first serve basis.

Cost of the trip will be $100 and will include transportation and food while in Iowa. For a list of what to take consider this post from many trips ago, but still works. Two additions: pack as light as possible and please use soft bags (gym bags go under seats, suitcases do not.

btw we did look into taking a bus but HODR can not handle that many volunteers currently due to changing nature of work and the large number of volunteers already there.

More pictures

I had quite a few pictures from the last day that had not been uploaded until last night. They are now online here.

Flooded Cedar Rapids homeowners face complicated decisions | GazetteOnline.com - Cedar Rapids, Iowa City

Flooded Cedar Rapids homeowners face complicated decisions | GazetteOnline.com - Cedar Rapids, Iowa City:

"But as the temperature and humidity neared sweltering last week, Wentzel and a team of volunteers from St. Bonaventure University in Olean, N.Y., were the only ones stirring along his street in Czech Village."

TJ and I have our picture in as well.

Monday Morning Malaise (Post trip gloom)

No matter how many relief trips I make, I am always sad when it is time to leave site and return home. This sadness does not last but is real and reoccurring


I have thought much about why this happens. Some of it assuredly is that I hate to leave any job undone. And the size and scope of these projects means that by definition there will be much work remaining.

There is also the natural let down when you leave friends (even ones you just made on the trip). Add to that the fact that upon leaving (and traveling) by the time home is reached, you have passed exhaustion. And of course there is the fact that when away, the world continued so you have a mailbox full of emails demanding answers and an already large backlog that has gotten even larger.

That said, I think the root cause is gloom is that the trip has made it abundantly clear that all is not well and that many people have it very tough path to travel down. How tough of path? Imagine losing your house and all of your possessions and in many cases your job. Now add to that sense of loss, your life itself is a jumble of insurance claims, waiting in lines, and errands to buy objects that only days before would have never crossed your mind. Can you imagine the feeling of despair and hopelessness? What makes that mental exercise more than just a mental game is that thousands of people are going through it right now.

Added together these items lead to a feeling of pessimism that briefly takes some of the luster off trip. However, in a short time the realization of that much good work was accomplished on the trip and that those same people whose losses helped cause the sense of loss in the first place, are now slightly better off because of you comes to dominate and the then upbeat volunteer will begin to think of ways to get back to help or minimally ways to help others at other sites but for now there is a short period of melancholy that must be worked through.

That and a large pile of dirty laundry. Off to the laundromat.

Great trip but too short

We are back! Got tons done but it was just too short of trip. The crew of volunteers (Tina, Heather, Sarah, Mike, TJ, Andy, Tim (yes even Tim), James, and Robert) were beyond my most optimistic expectations. To a person they worked incredibly hard! Definitely reaffirmed the BonaResponds' reputation of taking the worst jobs and getting them done the fastest.

GREAT WORK!


There is an amazing amount of work left and the number of volunteers is dropping, so if there is any chance you can get out there to work, please do! See Hodr.org. (also stay tuned here, we have not ruled out another trip)

I will post pictures and other things later tonight, but back in the work world today. So it won;t be until late night probably.

Great Day!

BonaResponds had a great day today. 4 jobs completed! which deserves a WOW!

We are going to head back tonight, but will probably stop part way.

Video compilation on gutting

Flip has a ridiculously easy to use movie maker...so I threw a few short video clips into the mixer and out comes this movie of what it is like to gut a house. (Fortunately for you, the smell was not included.)

News bites

Miscellaneous items:

• We all took Tina to the airport to start the day. She was already missed today as we could have used an extra set of hands on the job.
  
• Warm and muggy today. We all were totally soaked with sweat. So much so we took a popscicle/Fudgesicle break mid afternoon.
• Maybe the most surprising thing to me is how wet everything still is. Water in all drawers, cabinets, lights, today above all ceilings, etc. And MAN did it smell. In fact (and I realize many Katrina veterans will disagree) the smell of some of these homes rivals anything I smelled there. Or at least I think it does. Maybe I forget how bad Biloxi really smelled.
• Tomorrow BonaResponds (fortified with three new volunteers) will attempt to tackle three jobs. Stay tuned.
• A large St. Joseph's University group arrived today. Making the Atlantic-10 the #1 conference in terms of volunteering here.
• I ate way too much today. Went to Hyvee with the volunteers and home owner today. Got a great salad and OJ to eat on site, then we had pizza for dinner. Wil have to hit the bike and pool more when get home. Running here is arguably the best of any relief trip I have been on (with POSSIBLE exception of Neosho (HODR Newton County).
  
• Our GPS system (Sally) is a bit suspect. Definitely favors highways to all else, even if it means driving twice as far.
• T-shirts will not be in before we leave :(
  
• Among the Biloxi alum from Handson here now are Richard (I called him Rick in the blog article then) and Monkey Mike. Both of whom played key roles in the formation of BonaResponds. Richard was our first site leader and showed us how to gut homes (in fact we talked today about gutting the apartment on Nixon Street). He is also one of the many volunteers who gave us the confidence to try bigger things and BonaResponds is one result.
  
• We plan on leaving tomorrow after the nightly meeting. Since we only have one driver we will probably stop mid way and get at least a nap.
• Spoke on several occasions with Randy May of Randy's Rangers. He will probably be setting up camp somewhere in the area to help with recovery efforts.
  
• New pictures are online at our flickr page
  

SledgeHammer

uh, with apologies to Peter Gabriel, I give you three sledgehammer videos...

First Mike's


Then TJ's




and last and probably least, mine (Jim's)

What happens to the debris?

Watch how quickly a debris pile can be picked up.





Interestingly, in this case it might have gone too fast as the operator hit an electric wire. All were fine.

Catching up with BonaResponds

A few random topics:

* I was speaking to Andy (an original founder of BonaResponds) and James (the leader of BonaResponds in the important second year (2006-2007) that assured a future for the group. In each conversation I had almost the exact same comment:

"What a great group. I did not know then before they came, but wow is the group we broght hard working!

We may have brought bigger trips to sites on other trips, but never any that worked harder. In that respect this group reminds me of the first Biloxi trip. The volunteers have been working that hard. (and that is really saying something).

* Tina and Heather leave tomorrow. Andy, Tim, and another volunteer get here tomorrow.

* TJ was interviewed by the local newspaper today. See GazetteOnline.com or watch this blog for when it arrives.

* New Pictures are online.

* HODR is considering making this a 4 month deployment. I hope they do. You can help them do so by donating and/or by volunteering!

"I don't know if i will make it back, but if I do,..."

"I don't know if i will make it back...."

I am sure many of my students hoped the above quote was from me, but it wasn't. It was from "Charlie" (not his real name). He is an elderly gentleman who retired from the construction business after over 50 years.

In an unfortunate change of fate however, his peaceful retirement was interrupted by about 12 feet of water in his house. And so Volunteers from BonaResponds and HODR spent the day gutting.

It was a tough day. Several minor knicks and bruises, multiple layers of thick (and in sometimes wet) drywall, and even cement backing on tiles. But all of this was soon forgotten with Charlie's complete quote:

"I don't know if i will make it back, but if I do, I will owe it to volunteers who have just done so much for me."

Priceless thanks like that is what makes all of this worthwhile. WHo can need more reasons to volunteer? So even after we are gone, contact HODR.org or if you are reading this after HODR is done, see Corridor Recovery. (additionally watch the blog for other opportunities as well, which is, as Paul Harvey used to say, telling you a bit more than I know.)