 Usually when a meeting ends, attendees just go home and unwind. Not so for a hardy band of CEE volunteers, who stayed on after the recent Industry Partners meeting in New Orleans October 14-16.
Several staff members and Jane Stolzman, wife of CEE executive director Marc Hoffman, stayed over in New Orleans for a few days, pooling their efforts to help rehab a house in the St. Bernard Parish area, hard-hit by Hurricane Katrina. Staff willingly took their own time to engage in this effort.
This is no ordinary home building program—organizers of the St. Bernard Project continue to appeal for volunteer help and funds for donated building supplies. They estimate that it costs $12,000 to bring a family home, in a time span of only 12 weeks. CEE’s volunteers got their hands-on experience at the home of Michelle Murano, hanging drywall and offering moral support. The CEE team included Margie Lynch, Alison Nihart, Jennifer Anziano, Jason Erwin, Joanne O’Donnell, and Kara Rodgers., along with Jane.
Kara Rodgers said the experience was “very satisfying” to get away from her desk, and do some hands-on work that “really helps someone out.” She adds, it’s easy to sit back and sidewalk supervise, saying “an installer or  contractor should do x, y, or z,” but once you get involved in a project like this, “you get a sense of the real pressures contractors are under. Would Kara do it again? “I’d love to!” she exclaimed.
CFL Lighting Donations Sought
Another CEE volunteer, Margie Lynch, commented that the plight of homeowners like Michelle Murano is very real. “They’re clearly struggling—it’s been three years!—and anything we can do to reduce their living expenses would be huge.” Along those lines, the CEE team noticed that incandescent bulbs were still in use at the house; the bright idea they had was to send out an appeal to all CEE members and friends for some newer, energy efficient CFL lighting to contribute to the St. Bernard Parish project.
 If you’d like to help with CFL donations (or any other materials), contact Margie Lynch at CEE, mlynch@cee1.org or 617-589-3949 ext. 231. Your support will help bring a bit of much needed light into people’s lives in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans.
|
