A crew of 13 Luther students and a professor who assisted in the construction of Bill Kolbush’s home in Escatawpa, Mississippi, were fortunate enough to have a news crew from the local Biloxi ABC affiliate come to share their story on the 6:00 news. This crew also worked with LATCH, which stands for Lutherans Acting To Correct Housing and was founded in 1989 in response to Hurricane Hugo in South Carolina. Since 1989, they have now completed construction of 145 roofs around the country in response to numerous natural disasters. The week they shared with Luther marked their 145th roof completed in 20 years, and everyone in our group would attest that the skills they taught us were far more valuable than we ever could have imagined. Like one of our post-trip reflection leaves said “I also am certain that you’re never too old to volunteer. My group roofing leaders were in their 60s and led the charge.”
The video of the news piece on WLOX-ABC Biloxi can be found here. Patrice Clark did the reporting. She is also featured in WLOX’s documentary about South Mississippi’s experience with Hurricane Katrina, Katrina: South Mississippi’s Story. You can order your own copy of this great DVD here.
-SPN
