A group of volunteers from across the country, including a contingent from Colorado, has rebuilt the home of a Native American family in the Louisiana bayou that was destroyed by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Five Coloradans, four from the Denver metro area and one from Durango, left for Louisiana on Jan. 3 and are scheduled to return today.
They joined about 15 other volunteers, mostly Quakers, who helped a Biloxi-Chitimacha family of four rebuild their lives in the town of Duloc.
“The family we are working with here, they had been sleeping on the floor” of neighbors’ homes, said Tom Kowal, a volunteer from Westminster. “They were really depressed. When we first saw them, they were in bad shape.”
But since that first meeting, the volunteers have built a new 16-by-20-foot home, and members of the Verdin family are overjoyed to have a roof over their heads.
“These people, I’ve never seen anything like it. They were God-sent,” said Donnia Verdin, who lost the home she shared with her husband, Ernest, and their two daughters. “They give so much and don’t ask for anything in return. They are just beautiful to us.”
The group has also helped several other families who were pounded by the hurricanes.
Joining Kowal, a retiree, from Colorado were: Tom Short, a Denver retiree; Rebecca Wright, a student at the University of Colorado at Denver; Noah Bardwell, an East High School student; and Amy Wagner of Durango.
The volunteers raised about $15,000 to benefit hurricane victims in Louisiana through offices of the American Friends Service Committee in Philadelphia and Des Moines, Iowa. Another $3,000 was raised locally in the metro area, Kowal said.
Many of the volunteers plan to return in March and help the Verdins add more rooms to their simple home and to help other families.
Their work is in keeping with the spirit of the Quaker faith, said Martha Roberts, who attends services at the Mountain View Friends Meeting with Kowal and other volunteers.
“One of the hallmarks of this particular faith is, it’s a way of life,” Roberts said. “We work very hard to live what we believe.”
“I’m the novice,” she said. “I’ve been given many tutorials on hammer swinging since I’ve been here.”
Staff writer Kieran Nicholson can be reached at 303-820-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
