The month of April is known for many things—April Fool’s Day, the first full month of spring, the start of baseball season, “April showers bring May flowers” and regrettably the onset of severe spring weather.
But, did you know that April is also “National Volunteer Month” in the United States, and that Canada celebrates National Volunteer Week, April 11 to 18. No fooling. April is also National Poetry Month, but we will get to that later.
For organizations like Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS), no month of the year could be more important than April. Volunteers are the life blood of MDS. Without them, there is no MDS. Without them, many survivors of storms will lose hope and struggle to recover.
On Tuesday, April 7, the MDS binational staff hosted local MDS volunteers at a luncheon held at the MDS Lititz, Pa., offices, as a moment of appreciation for all of that they give.
On Thursday, April 2, in Far Rockaway, N.Y., homeowners and partner groups from the community sang praises and gave thanks to God for the hundreds of volunteers who came through their community the past three years rebuilding homes after superstorm Sandy.
Pointing at pictures of volunteers in a recent copy of the MDS newsletter, “Behind the Hammer,” Anne Marie Durm, a homeowner in Howard Beach, N. Y., said that each morning “I pray for each one of them.”
“I am a Catholic prayer warrior,” she said to the group assembled later that evening for the closing ceremonies of the Far Rockaway MDS work site.
Durm was found shivering on the third floor attic of her home three years ago after Sandy nearly destroyed her home. Today, her home is solid, secure and warm, and she will be the first to say, it’s because of volunteers.
In February, students from Conrad Grebel University College in Ontario decided they would rather serve strangers in Far Rockaway than study or holiday over the school’s reading week. The MDS project director reported they were a “keen bunch of young people who worked hard and had great attitudes!”
Last month, in Pilger, Nebraska, young university students who attended a Mennonite congregation in Wichita decided they would rather spend their spring break fitting a new house with plumbing than racing down to a sunny beach in Florida.
In June 2014 a tornado ripped through Pilger, wiping out the business district, homes, a church, and school. Two people died in the village. After hitting Pilger the tornado ravaged the countryside and other towns for another 60 miles.
Students from Bluffton University, Ohio, and Millersville University in Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania State University volunteered in Far Rockaway and Crisfield, Maryland.
In 2014 3,636 short-term and long-term volunteers, youth, and retirees assisted disaster survivors in Canada and the U.S. Together they worked more than 26,361 days and served 463 disaster survivors.
They cleaned up after disasters, made minor and major repairs to some 250 homes and buildings, and built 36 new homes.
They worked in High River, Ab., Alakanuk, Ala., Detroit, Mich., Fort Walton, Fla., Staten Island, N.Y., and Hattiesburg, Miss., and other places. They even helped to build a small bridge in West Virginia and gutted and rebuilt an old brick home destroyed by fire in downtown Kitchener, Ont.
It is not at all difficult to tabulate the numbers and even the monetary worth. The value of the 2014 MDS volunteer labor is roughly USD $4.7 million (CAD $5.9 million), when calculating the total number of volunteers working 26,361 eight-hour days at $22.55 per hour, the national hourly average wage, according to the non-profit advocacy group Independent Sector.
When listening to New York State Senator James Sanders speak of MDS volunteers, however, it is not about the money. It was about something else, a different value, and a priceless value.
Sanders was as insistent as he was in jest, when he said at the Far Rockaway gathering that MDS is not allowed to leave New York, even though the work is done, “We are not going to let you go,” he said.
“By the power invested in me I revoke your leaving, you cannot leave the Rockaways, we have fallen in love with you and therefore you are ours,” he said, to applause from the audience.
At the dedication of her Fort Walton, Fla., home in February, Connie Carlberg told the MDS volunteers gathered in her living room that “you have changed my life more than my house.”
“Without our volunteers, MDS would be an empty shell,” MDS executive director, Kevin King said. “We need them,; the disaster survivors need them. They bring hope, joy and the love of Christ to places and people who are just asking for some hope and peace.”
The MDS Volunteer Development Team in Lititz and Winnipeg say it well in a thank-you postcard to volunteers,: “You are much appreciated, and we hope you know that’s true, that every day we’re grateful for volunteers like you.”
Oh, did you know April is also National Poetry Month? “It is also fitting because we like to think that our volunteers write the best poetry with their paint brushes and hammers,” King said.
For previous stories on the High River project see:
This group of volunteers worked in the High River, Alta., Mennonite Disaster Service rebuilding project. High River was flooded in June 2013, and MDS continues to rebuild for residents whose homes were damaged. (Photo courtesy of MDS)
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