Calling All You Angels....

For me, a Hero is an ordinary person doing an extraordinary thing. It's a person scared senseless, but doing it anyway. A person who reaches deep inside and does what they have to do because, well, it just had to be done. No time to engage their brain and talk themselves out of it, just rightful action and successful consequence.

There were many Heroes in Pearlington the day Katrina took their breath away.

There is young Amanda, who says: "The storm washed away my home. The steps that lead to my front door were down the road. My grandma, my sister and her boyfriend were at my Aunt's house and made it out alive. For three hours we stayed in the back of a pick-up truck. The water was up to the bed of the pick-up truck."

James Narvaez tells of the immediate aftermath of Katrina, part of a group brought together by the storm when they met up at the local fire station looking for shelter the day after they lost their homes. They stayed for four nights, scavenging for food and water, in the second floor of the fire house, which was later deemed too contaminated to serve as a supply distribution site. They found water at a store around the corner and some meat "that didn't smell too bad" in a freezer that had landed nearby.

Narvaez rode out much of the storm on a boat with Claude and Cookie Bello and their family. Whe the flooding began to overwhelm the neighbourhood, the Bellos rushed to a nearby two-story hous to find higher ground. As the water rose, they were forced to the attic, where they were able to board a small boat. Claude Bello's brother, Frankie Bello, found a Tupperware container large enough to hold his 8-month-old baby and floated the baby to the waiting arms of his family on the boat. The family waited six hours in heavy winds and driving rain, before Claude Bello got out of the boat and was able to touch bottom. He tied a rope to his waist and dragged the boat back to the house, where the family rode out the rest of the storm.

There is the young mother and father who were forced to climb a pecan tree, pushing their children ahead of them, as the waters engulfed their home. Many hours later, a small skiff drifted by and the young man swam for and together they "paddled out of town."

There is the quiet man from Stennis, putting his own recovery on hold as he scavenges and provides for 40 others. There is the old man, terminal with emphysema, unable to use his respirator for the lack of a generator. He has one now - thanks to the intrepid insistence of his younger girlfriend.

There is the young girl, who had to send her sister into the Aid Mart to ask an older man, a total stranger, if I thought I could find her a brassiere. There is another 13-year-old Amanda, daughter of the man from Stennis, who badly pinched her finger in a cot, setting them up for the old people. There is little Lucy, who told me "my house broke." And there is Hailey, "proud as Punch," because she finally found a pair of sunglasses that would fit her little face. She grandly took off the adult ones she'd found and asked that Renegade Shawn put them back, in case "someone else needed them."

These are the Heroes of Pearlington and now it is time to support them in a different way.

Dream School International proudly announces the inception of PROJECT: PEARLINGTON. A small team will travel to Mississippi in late October/early November to provide friendship, emotional support and ready hearts and hands to ALL the Heroes of Pearlington.

HERE'S WHAT YOU CAN DO:

1) Make application to DSI to be a Volunteer Friendship Ambassador from Canada, travelling during the above dates to Mississippi. I am looking for another man and two or three women.
2) Create a fund raiser to help us build the $4000-$5000 we need to make this Dream a reality.
3) Sponsor one of our newly-created HOPE CHESTS, a small plastic tote with all the things different age groups of children would treasure and hang on to in the challenging months ahead....perhaps a Dream Stone....a fluffy....a pocket radio....a letter and picture from you and your family....a pen pal invitation....a Dream of Hope. Each Hope Chest will include the names, addresses and photo of the sponsoring family and perhaps a long-lasting connection can be made.
4) Send us your prayers and best wishes for a successful Dream in boosting the spirits of the good folk of Pearlington.

Each HOPE CHEST may be sponsored for $60.00 CDN., half of which will create the chest itself and the other half will be donated to the expenses of PROJECT: PEARLINGTON.

Fund raisers may include bake sales, car washes, etc. - anything appropriate that will do the job. DSI can provide information and leaflets for your guests. Dream School cannot, however, support any fund raiser that includes gambling and/or the consumption of alcohol. It's the wrong energy considering with whom we work. So far, DSI has had a total of $335.00 received, with gratitude, towards a follow-up project to my initial trip. That's a good start.


Let's show the Heroes of Pearlington that CANADA CARES!

If you are interested - and available - to travel, please contact me at:

www.heroes@dreamschoolinternational.com

If you have an idea for a fund raiser:

www.support@dreamschoolinternational.com

If you wish to sponsor a Hope Chest:

www.hope@dreamschoolinternational.com


Thank you all for your wonderful support of me as I travelled to the Gulf last month. There is much more to do and, as Canadians, we have a responsibility - that is, an "ability to respond" - that calls us to this outreach of friendship and goodwill.

Jon

"This Canadian is nothing but a big Dreamer"
- Soviet press, 1996