Twenty volunteers from First Church traveled to Biloxi January 31 to February 6, 2010, to help in the housing recovery for local residents, still a great need even five years after Hurricane Katrina.  Back Bay Mission, a United Church of Christ endeavor, hosted us and directed us in our efforts.  Joining with twenty volunteers from two Illinois UCC congregations, we worked in three teams: (1) painting the interior and exterior of a new home.  The outside painting required extensive scaffolding because the house was built on stilts above the flood plain; (2) rehabilitating another house, installing insulation and drywall; and (3) re-organizing and rehabilitating storage areas at Back Bay Mission for the extensive building supplies they need to have organized and ready.  This involved building new shelves, sorting and labeling as well as repairing leaks.  We appreciated the relationships developed with the volunteers from the other congregations, with the Back Bay Mission staff and people in the Biloxi community. We lived and cooked in a new facility, bunking in 20 bed dormitories. 

Participants were: Nancy (trip organizer) and Randy Clark, Hugh and Kate McLean, Al and Marilyn Boehm, Bob and Dorothy McAllister, Bang Williams,  Rick Huleatt, John and Jan Stevens, Dodie Benko and Tom Stribula, Charlotte Zoner, Julie and Lowell Fewster, Bob and Ginny Lougee and Jim Hourdequin.

Back Bay Mission’s ministry, providing a range of services in the community, is supported by First Church by a contribution we brought as well as through the Connecticut Conference of the UCC “Now for the Future” capital campaign.