'Recovery coaches' help families rebuild their lives after Katrina

Faith and courage, backed by the actions of concerned local residents, is helping many Hurricane Katrina families rebuild their lives in Jacksonville.

“When Suzanne Yack sent out her e-mail alert that Katrina evacuees were arriving in our midst and volunteers were needed, she had perfect timing,” said Wendy Pugnetti, a Rayonier Inc. executive who was one of dozens of Women to the Rescue volunteers responding to the call for action.

“My husband and I were among the millions in the country who were desperate to find a way to help directly,” she said.

Women to the Rescue, a FreshMinistries initiative, adopted more than 80 Katrina families and provided varying levels of assistance to hundreds more. Networking to provide everything from food, clothing and shelter to psychological counseling, help with government paperwork and job-hunting, Jacksonville volunteers became the “recovery coaches” for the dazed evacuees.

The grass-roots movement, supported by the Florida Hurricane Relief Fund, proved so effective that the Volunteer Florida Foundation program adopted it as the model for a nine-county Neighbors to the Rescue movement in South Florida. Broward County’s Neighbors to the Rescue organization is helping with recovery from Hurricane Wilma.

Pugnetti and some of her friends adopted the Fuentez family of six.

“They were crammed into a small two-bedroom home with relatives. Women to the Rescue found an unfurnished, three-bedroom home for them,” said Pugnetti, who immediately put out the word via an e-mail asking for household items.

“People I never met were there delivering furniture the day the Fuentez family moved in. Dignity U Wear gave new clothing and others formed a cooking brigade and stocked the refrigerator with food. It is incredible how resourceful and swift individuals can be in helping others when they connect person-to-person rather than funneling help through a bureaucracy,” she said.

Sparkle Fuentez, mother of three, was astounded at the bustle of volunteer activity that heralded the arrival of Women to the Rescue.

“We couldn’t believe it. We had just pulled up to the house Wendy found for us and people were coming with food, clothing and furniture. There are wonderful people in Jacksonville,” said Fuentez, who escaped New Orleans with her husband, Carlos, their daughter Leia, 9, and sons Dominic, 5, and Diego, 1. Her mother was also with them.

Recently, just as their temporary, rent-free housing arrangement was nearing an end, the Church of Jacksonville stepped in with the offer of a home on Jacksonville’s Southside, all expenses paid, for one year.

Meanwhile, Sparkle Fuentez has found a permanent position; her two older children are doing well in public schools; her mother has returned to New Orleans, and the family is seeking day care for their 1-year-old so Carlos Fuentez can seek full-time employment.

“Carlos was the main breadwinner back home,” Fuentez said. “He was in management and accounting at a furniture store, but that job is gone now. Everything we had in New Orleans is gone.”

Formerly a New Orleans levee operator, Ronnie Blaise stayed behind during Hurricane Katrina to keep the pumps running but evacuated his family.

“My wife, Paula, her mother, and our daughter Danielle headed to a cousin’s house in Jacksonville. There was just one evacuation bus picking people up in the parish. I put my mother and sister on it. Our family has never left when there was a hurricane, but I had a feeling this was the bad one.”

For four days following Hurricane Katrina, Paula Blaise didn’t know whether her husband was dead or alive.

“There were so many that died. They wanted us to stay on, but I had to get to my family. The people in a wildlife truck asked me where Metairie was. I took them to Metairie and kept on going. Rode a yellow school bus to Baton Rouge. When I finally found a phone that worked and I heard Paula’s voice, I just broke down crying.”

Now living in a home provided by University Chapel, Ronnie and Paula, both formerly employed by the state of Louisiana, have secured jobs with the state of Florida. Danielle is completing her senior year at Englewood High School.

Paula’s mother, Theresa Chandler, lost more than the home where she raised her seven children.

“We lost two of my mother’s cousins who didn’t evacuate and were drowned,” Paula Blaise said, “and we lost people we’d known forever from our close-knit church family, and then, my mother’s sister died this month. My brothers and sisters are scattered all over the country.”

Chandler’s health, emotional and physical, is a concern for the Blaise family.

“When we were evacuating, mother developed blood clots in both of her lungs and in one of her legs, and we had to leave her in a Tallahassee hospital until she recovered and go back to get her. Mother’s been talking of going back since day one, but since we’ve been in Jacksonville, the people have been so good to us,” she said.

“Pam Kelly with Women to the Rescue and the University Chapel … they’ve just been there for us in every way. The people here are so supportive—and they allow you to talk about it, which you need to do,” she said.

“One of the things that I admire most about the Blaise family is that in spite of losing all of their material possessions, they did not lose their hope,” said Kelly, another executive at Rayonier.

“Their faith made them appreciate that they had been able to escape the hurricane without loss of life,” Kelly said. “Paula put tremendous energy into creating an atmosphere of ‘normalcy’ for her family when things were anything but normal. I admire her courage and energy. I feel we’ll be friends forever.”

from the Voices column in the Jacksonville Times-Union newspaper

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