Success of New Orleans Mission Project

MULTI-STATE EFFORT HELPS DISABLED NEW ORLEANS MAN GET BACK HOME - by Gretchen Bell
- August 22, 2011

Jason Hurst and his mother, Willmarine, finally got back to their house in New Orleans at 5am Monday morning June 27. It was a 530 mile drive, which took almost 6 years. What made it happen was the kindness of strangers, the internet and the resourcefulness disabled people and their families find deep down inside themselves when they have to.

At the time Hurricane Katrina was approaching New Orleans in August 2005, Jason, 30 years old and a quadriplegic, owned his own home in Ponchartrain Park, employed several relatives as attendants, was working on a degree at nearby Southern Louisiana U and was able to get around town via public transport. When he and his family realized the impending danger, he was quickly stuffed into the back seat of his uncle’s sedan with his manual wheelchair, leaving the power wheelchair and his beloved dog, Candy, behind.

It was a difficult ride to Dallas, Texas but it was fortunate that they decided to leave rather than stay to ride out the storm. The state of Louisiana recorded 1464 post-Katrina storm-related deaths – 400 were children – many of them disabled and elderly people who died by drowning. The water that flooded and damaged Jason’s home rose to a level just below the ceiling.

Upon arriving in Dallas at his sister’s place, he realized that he could not get up to her upper floor apartment. Then he and his mother were turned away from the Red Cross shelter. That was when they met the first of many strangers who assisted them in their struggle to live temporarily in Texas and to get back home. A local woman helped the two find accessible housing. As soon as they got settled and had access to a computer, Jason started posting e-mails on pet-related websites in an effort to find Candy. StealthVolunteers, Jane Carter from Virginia among them, started looking for Jason’s dog. Incredibly, they were successful. He got the call that someone had found Candy and was bringing her to Dallas.

In March 2006, Jason and Willmarine borrowed a van to travel to New Orleans to work with West Bank United Methodist Storm Relief to gut their house. They got the assistance of volunteers from Lafayette Park UMC of St. Louis, Missouri. One of those volunteers, Larry Heugatter, came back with a team from G&C Roofing (Henry Gibson) and truck full of shingles and roofers to replace the roof.

And then the house stood, the interior stripped down to the studs, while the family went thru the state Road Home process to get a grant to reconstruct it and find a trustworthy contractor to do the work. Thru the winter of 2008, I tried to find a non-profit in New Orleans knowledgeable about mold remediation, which was the next step before drywall went up. Amy Allen from Hands on New Orleans offered to provide tools & instruction if I could bring volunteers. I contacted Robin Perry, founder of Philly to NOLA, and she pulled together 5 musicians and 2 World Café Live staffers to go down for 5 days with me in May of that year to kill mold.

When this was completed and after Jason received his Road Home funding, he hired a family friend, Ed, as his contractor. Ed became notorious for not responding to calls to his cell phone. I heard at one point that he lost one phone by dropping it between the studs and the drywall. Jason coordinated electricians, plumbers and inspectors by phone. Reconstruction was moving along, very slowly.

Meanwhile, Larry in St. Louis and Jane in Virginia were busy trying to get measurements to order appliances for the Hurst house. Fundraisers had been held at the World Café Live in Philadelphia and at the Lafayette Park UMC in St. Louis. The money was combined and when the decisions were made, Larry ordered a refrigerator, stove, dishwasher, washer & dryer from the Home Depot in New Orleans. They were held at the store until the home was complete…….and occupied.

All though the fall of 2009, Jason followed his New Orleans Saints who were having a good season. His medical issues took a back seat that winter as Drew Brees and the team moved into the playoffs and then, the unbelievable happened! Black and Gold won Super Bowl XLIV! How sweet!

So far that spring and summer, the year had been difficult for the usually active Jason. But on August 13, we all received an e-mail that really knocked the stuffing out of our reconstruction ambitions: Willmarine said someone broke into their house, tore up the sheetrock, ripped out the wiring and cut a hole in the roof. She was completely despondent. Jason was devastated.

She said she was through. She told us not to respond, she didn’t feel like talking. We did not know what to say or what to do next. The family had no more Road Home funds to use.

Willmarine Hurst is a freelance writer. She puts her emotions into articles. This time she poured out her heart to the New Orleans Times Picayune. And once again, a stranger contacted her. Bonnie Evans from Catholic Charities had read the article and wanted to help. They were the non-profit that completed work on the house.

On June 26 Jason’s brother Jahmal, Ed and a few other family friends dismantled the hospital bed and loaded everything into a U-Haul. Willmarine drove Jason in their troublesome van. The trip was made several hours longer because the van tire had a blow-out…..twice. But they got home. With a little help from their friends.