Hurricane Katrina: A Note from the Director
3 Years of Rebuilding and Restoration

For the past three years CityTeam Volunteers have been living in a baseball field called the “Field of Dreams” rebuilding homes and caring for people that don’t have the means to rebuild their homes or their lives. We have been blessed with the opportunity to minister to the community of Bay St. Louis by providing food, safe water, counseling, and through rebuilding homes.

Our biggest contribution was to help the neediest families restore their hope by rebuilding their homes and lives.

It has been a long road, but we have been so blessed to see thousands of volunteers come from across the country and partner with us, I know it was a little scary for some volunteers to leave their family for two weeks and live a more simple life in a tent, on a baseball field, in the middle of a disaster area. But I can tell you that hundreds of volunteers have told us time and time again that their lives were transformed as they helped people in need.

Thank you to every volunteer that came to help. We could not have done this without them. Many of them came three or four times and brought more friends with them each time.

We have 5 months left and we are in need of more volunteers until December. There are still families who are desperate to rebuild their home by Christmas.

An estimated 60 percent of the people in this area are still living in trailers, and our teams are seeing an increase in individuals and families who are homeless. It will be years before this city is returned to anything close to its original state.

I am proud to report that we still have a very visible presence in the area and have seen many lives transformed and restored because of our long term response effort that focuses on the rebuilding and recovery of communities. The blue CityTeam T-Shirt worn by our staff and volunteers has become a symbol of hope for the people of Bay St. Louis.

Richard Williams
Regional Vice President

CityTeam will remain in Bay St. Louis to provide aid and rebuild homes until December 2008. If you are interested in helping with our relief efforts, please contact Tanya Liston at tliston@cityteam.org or at 408-232-5637.