2010: the year in review 2010 has been a great year for Rebuilding Together New Orleans. To say thank you for all that you have done with us over the last year we have put together a year in review slideshow of some of the great events and milestones we have had this year.
January 2010 started off with a lot of new beginnings and fresh starts. Volunteers built a wheelchair ramp with new wood in Gentilly. While our deconstruction team prepared old wood for sale in our Preservation Salvage Store.
February
Mr. Joseph was able to enter his home for the first time since 2005 after RTNO built a wheelchair ramp on his home. He had to leave his Gentilly home when Hurricane Katrina struck and in the aftermath as an evacuee he lost his legs to diabetes. Resigned to a wheelchair he could not come back home to rebuild his home on his own. RTNO built the wheelchair ramp first so Mr. Joseph could enter his home even before the rebuilding was finished so he could see the progress being made. His first trip home he spent working with our Construction Manager to design a layout that would suit his needs.
March March brings spring break to RTNO. Universities from across the nation send alternative spring break teams to volunteer rebuilding houses. Hundreds of spring break volunteers joined us
April In April we had our Sear’s Heroes at Home build. Veteran Lucius Tyson of Gentilly received funds and appliances from Sears to rebuild his home. In April Mr. Tyson was still living in a FEMA trailer in his front lawn but volunteers including two young veterans worked to bring him back home.
May
In May we were joined by CB Richard Ellis whose many volunteers worked across the Broadmoor neighborhoods painting homes, building fences, and creating a wheelchair ramp to make the home of an elderly couple more accessible.
June & July
In the heat of a Louisiana summer the building typically slows down. But the Honore family kept things moving when they their family reunion chose to help rebuild the homes of two Gentilly homeowners.
August August 24th to 28th RTNO commemorated the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina with Fifty for Five. Over five days more than a thousand people volunteered throughout the neighborhood of Gentilly to rebuild homes and revitalize a community. Shaun Donovan, US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development joined us to see all the great work that was being done.
September
September brought us a whole new crew of AmeriCorps Directs and VISTAs.
October
This year was our 20th October Build. We celebrated by doing what we do best: building. Volunteers from all over New Orleans worked to aid their neighbors with paint brush, drill, and jack hammer.
November In November we were joined by Entergy and the 2013 Super Bowl Host committee to build a playground in Hollygrove. In one day we put up the play structure, built picnic tables, painted a mural, and planted trees to beautify the park.
December In December thanks to a grant from Lowe’s we were able to provide weatherization to a home in Broadmoor and supply a family with a brand new heating and air conditioning system. The Thomas’s, pictured below, have been living since the storm with no heating system in their home and were overjoyed to be able to host the family Christmas at their home in the snuggly comfort of their newly heated home.