Family Life

09.22.10 | Martha Manikas-Foster

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I saw Plaquemines Parish in southern Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina . . . three years after Hurricane Katrina, mind you, but even three years after the hurricane’s destructive wind and water, local communities faced a long list of challenges.

Today we are five years out from the Gulf region’s double wallop of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. When the crisis was fresh news, volunteers packed their crowbars and paintbrushes and loaded up vans for the trip south. Help is still needed, even today, but without a spotlight on the Gulf, fewer of us are making travel plans or sending money.

Not everyone outside of the Gulf States has forgotten the Gulf coast, however. Scott Sundberg, today’s guest on Inside Out, works with Mennonite Disaster Service: mds.mennonite.net. MDS is one of a number of church and parachurch agencies continuing to funnel volunteers toward Gulf coast relief. This is especially appreciated after oil from the April 2010 Deep Water Horizon explosion hit the very same beaches visited by Katrina four and a half years before. Join us for this discussion about what motivates the kind of volunteerism that thrives away from the spotlight.

Martha Manikas-Foster