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Harvest of Hope
The Cedar Rapids community has hope for the holidays, thanks to a group of volunteers who spent part of their Thanksgiving weekend rebuilding in the city’s flooded areas.
Approximately 100 people participated in Harvest of Hope, an alternative project led by the local AmeriCorps VISTA flood recovery effort.
On Friday, Nov. 27 and Saturday, Nov. 28, 2009, high school and college students on break, AmeriCorps’ National Civilian Community Corps, and other volunteers and their families joined VISTAs in mucking and gutting homes, plus mudding drywall.
Event organizer Casey Westlake told Saturday’s volunteers that she came up with the idea in August after giving a tour of the city to a family friend from Tennessee.
“He asked me when the flood happened and I said June of ‘08, and he goes ‘you mean June of ‘09′ and I said no, it was a year ago June,” said Westlake, who was born and raised in Cedar Rapids before moving with her family to the Nashville area. “It was just like really a wake-up call to me for how much work there still is to be done, and what better time to do it than Thanksgiving?”
The volunteers were served an alternative Thanksgiving lunch Saturday afternoon in the St. Wenceslaus Gym Building.
By Brian Siguenza
Click here to see more photos from the weekend.
