Habitat workers head to New Orleans

A contingent from Sisters’ Habitat for Humanity chapter is heading to Katrina country this week. Ten hardy workers will make Abita Springs, Louisiana home base for a week, as they make their contribution to one of many Habitat homes being built in the area.

Gale and Molly Larson, brigade leaders for the Sisters Habitat for Humanity affiliate, have built homes in many countries of the world. This is their first build in the United States. They’ll be leading the team, all volunteers paying their own way. Included are Dwight and Kris Gill, Larry Lennon, Mike Herold, Doug Leonig, Dave and Eloise Barry and new Sisters Habitat homeowner, Robin Tawney.

The crew will stay in the infirmary of a camp at Abita Springs. The small town, with a population of just under 2,000, is about 35 miles north of New Orleans, at the end of the causeway crossing Lake Pontchartrain. It is in the St. Tammany West Habitat affiliate, one which has been busy since the hurricanes last summer. According to Larson, there are five or six homes going up in the community at this time.

Larson said, “The local brigade leader, Clare Nettles, has the job of finding a place for us to stay and then finding work to keep us busy.”

The team brings a variety of skills to the jobsite. All of them have volunteered on many of the Sisters homes, and Tawney has the unique perspective of a new homeowner.

When the week is finished at Abita Springs, the team plans to travel to New Orleans to see the situation there.