Even though Liz McCartney lived a 1,000 miles away in Washington, she was haunted by images of the Hurricane Katrina’s destruction and the stories of the people who had survived the ordeal; facing still another as they tried to piece their lives back together. So, in February 2006, she and her boyfriend, Zack Rosenburg, went to New Orleans to volunteer.

The experience was so life changing! It was so life changing that they quit their jobs, moved to St. Bernard Parish, dedicated to helping people rebuild and move back into their homes.

By June 2006, the couple had left Washington and moved to St. Bernard Parish. Neither knew anything about construction, but both felt they could use their experience raising money and organizing volunteers to help with the rebuilding effort. Local residents, touched by the couple's leap of faith, taught them basic construction.

McCartney said that when she first arrived in St. Bernard Parish, she was stunned. "We just wanted to pitch in and help out," McCartney, now 35, recalls. "I naively thought that six months later, you'd see all kinds of progress. [But it] looked like the storm had just rolled through."

St. Bernard Parish, once home to 67,000 residents, after the storm, was nearly removed from the map. Nearly 100% of the homes were completely destroyed.

Being reminded of her own family, as McCartney came to know the local population, she says, "These were people who worked their whole lives, put their kids through college, and had never had to receive help before.”

Within two months, McCartney and Rosenburg opened the nonprofit St. Bernard Project, which focused on helping those they considered most in need first, the senior citizens, and families with children.

Their formula was straightforward: With donations, volunteers and skilled supervisors, homes were rebuilt, and people moved back home. "It's not rocket science," McCartney says. "The problems in this community are widespread, but the solutions are really simple."

Yet this simple equation yields impressive results. The St. Bernard Project can transform a gutted house into a livable home in just eight to 12 weeks for an average cost of $12,000.
For residents like Aguilar, the St. Bernard Project has been a lifesaver. In the years since Katrina, he lost his job and struggled with health problems. "We were a normal red-blooded American family," recalls Rudy Aguilar. "And ... it took one day to wipe us out. I was so beaten down," Aguilar recalled, “I was gonna blow myself away."

Currently, more than 6,000 volunteers have worked with the St. Bernard Project, enabling more than 120 families to move back into their homes. McCartney says every house her group rebuilds has an impact on the community as a whole.

"Once you get one family back, other families are willing to come back as well," she says. "There's a very nice ripple effect."

McCartney and Rosenburg plan to keep working until all the homes in St. Bernard Parish are rebuilt. "We're here until we work ourselves out of a job," she says.



http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/05/08/heroes.mccartney/index.html