Lend A Hand Adventure

Volunteers Bob and Mary Scarborough

rscarborough@pasen.gov

Slateville Presbyterian Church, Delta, PA.

The weather in Florida made grim history in 2004 when four hurricanes struck between mid-August and the end of September. The first one of the four hit the Gulf Coast areas of Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda on August 13. Punta Gorda took a direct hit from Hurricane Charley, leveling homes, businesses and the First Presbyterian church.

Lend A Hand, a volunteer disaster response ministry of Christian Churches United, headquartered in Harrisburg, sponsored a recent disaster relief effort. The purpose of Lend A Hand is to organize a reliable system of transportation, labor, housing and meals for volunteers who wish to help people suffering hardship as the result of a disaster. Twenty four volunteers went in our group. Land A Hand had coordinated with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance in Florida for our work assignment. Thirty two percent of the contributions that we make to One Great Hour of Sharing go directly to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance for disaster response. We stayed overnight at Santee, South Carolina going down and coming back. A Presbyterian church in Santee fed us an evening meal coming and going. When we got to Florida, we stayed in a Baptist Activity Center in Fort Myers, about one half hour from our work site.

When the Lend A Hand volunteers from Harrisburg arrived in Florida on March 13, we were told by the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Coordinator that we had accomplished 50% of what was expected of us just by showing up and showing that we cared. We were told that much of the “work” done by volunteers includes being sympathetic listeners to people whose lives have been devastated by natural disaster.

One of those affected directly by Hurricane Charley was Robert Beckman of Hickory Street in a rural area of Punta Gorda. Mr. Beckman had several health issues and his home had experienced a good deal of neglect before the hurricane season of 2004. However, the storm uprooted several trees in his yard, one of which punched a basketball sized hole in his house roof and tore through a porch roof. It was almost by accident or divine providence that the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Coordinator for the area checked to see if anyone still lived in this house.

When the bright red and white Trailways bus backed down the dirt street to Mr. Beckman’s house on Monday, March 14, those aboard could hardly see the house where we would be working because of the wild vegetation and the downed trees. Back a good piece from the street was a small cinder block house with a semi-flat cement roof covered in ragged blue canvas. Porches ran down two sides of the house. Rain water poured freely through the roof in several areas including the large hole in the kitchen and smaller drips in the bedrooms.

Few of our work crew ventured inside the house because of its shabby appearance. Mr. Beckman appeared to be much older than his years and much battered by life. He was at a loss to know what to do about his situation and had just about given up. He was overwhelmed to find that we had come from Pennsylvania to help him.

When we left on Friday, March 18, the rotten porch roofs had been replaced with new lumber and new sheathing and covered with new tar paper. The major hole in the house roof had been patched and new blue canvas covered the entire living area so that Mr. Beckman’s house was free from leaks for the first time in nearly 6 months. Another crew coordinated through Presbyterian Disaster Assistance was to come the week after us to install all new roofing material. Seven dumpster loads of yard waste and trash had been hauled away and the yard looked like a tropical garden. It was hot dirty work but no one complained. It was obvious that the grounds crew had worked harder than the roofing crew because they got so dirty. It is a known fact that several changes of clothes and at least one pair of boots did not come back home from Florida.

For those who went on this adventure, we were rewarded many times over just by knowing we had helped someone who was unable to help himself. For those Presbyterians among our group, it was gratifying to put a name and a face to someone who benefited from our One Great Hour of Sharing offerings.