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Group works to mend tornado’s wounds in community

Date: 9/6/2011

Sept. 7, 2011

By Debbie Gardner

Assistant Editor

WEST SPRINGFIELD — Every Wednesday morning, a group of dedicated people gather at the West Springfield Church of Christ on Upper Union Street with one purpose — to find ways to assist residents still coping with the aftereffects of the June 1 tornado.

“The needs keep growing,” Diane Crowell, board member of the newly named Raising Hope Together Long Term Recovery Group, a consortium of professional, faith-based, volunteer, charitable, town and civic organizations, said. “We’re helping in any way we can on the road to recovery.”

For example, on Aug 23, the group hosted an informational meeting at the Municipal Office Building on Center Street to address resident’s questions about insurance coverage and tornado damage. That meeting was prompted, Cromwell said, by resident’s difficulties with “getting money in a timely fashion to do what they need to do to their homes.” According to Raising Hope Together Board Chairman Gareth Flanary, minister of West Springfield Church of Christ, information from the meeting is also available on DVD for individuals who could not attend.

The group, which organized with the assistance of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), has been meeting since mid-July. Flanary said residents are always welcome to attend the meetings, which begin at 9 a.m. at the church, to express their views about, or raise problems associated with the town’s tornado recovery efforts.

“The idea [of a long term recovery group] is to fill the unmet needs of people who were not able to get help,” Hector Ball, FEMA voluntary agency liaison specialist, told Reminder Publications. “My experience with FEMA is that the people who most need it, don’t ask for help.”

Ball said in his advisory role he encourages communities to do exactly what Raising Hope Together is trying to do, which is to “Get involved to build their own recovery.”

On Aug. 31 the group, which included Crowell, Flanary, Ball, West Springfield Director of Community Development Joe LaPlante, Director of Public Health Jeanne Galloway and Director of Parks and Recreation Victoria Connor, mayoral candidate Greg Neffinger, who is donating his services as an architect, Lutheran Social Services representatives Mohamed Najeeb and Emil Farjo, United Way representative Carlos Rosario, Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency representative Kristen Jerome, West Springfield At Large Town Councilor Brian Griffin, local clergy and others, met to flesh out the details of initiating home assessment visits in the Merrick section of town.

Flanary said once the group gets an overview of the neighborhood’s most pressing rebuilding needs, it could begin to solicit donations of construction materials and volunteers, and plan fund-raising efforts.

“We can’t nail a nail into somebody’s house until we know that’s a need, and we can’t nail a nail until we have help,” Flanary noted.

The target date for visits to begin is Sept. 9. Flanary said introductory letters and brochures explaining the group and its goals would be sent out ahead of time to individuals who previously approached the Council of Churches for tornado help. Volunteers — all of whom have been trained in case management — would wear lanyards and possibly T-shirts identifying them as representatives of Raising Hope Together, he added.

Crowell said another Raising Hope Together project already underway is fund-raising to replant trees in the Merrick section. She is working with LaPlante and Jack Dowd, director of the Department of Public Works, to acquire approximately 40 appropriately sized, sturdy trees to begin reforesting the neighborhood.

Flanary said Raising Hope Together is also working to develop spiritual and emotional care resources for residents and create work assignments for individuals and groups interested in helping with the rebuilding efforts.

“A lot of people are concerned and would like to help out,” Neffinger said. “If they are asked to be the director of something, they might be reluctant. But if they are given specific tasks, they are willing to help.”

Flanary said potential volunteers could contact the organization by e-mail at raisinghopetogether@gmail.com or by calling 2-1-1 and asking for the group. The organization also maintains a Facebook page at Raising Hope Together.

Debbie Gardner can be reached by e-mail at debbieg@thereminder.com



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