PDA to open volunteer village in central Florida

2007-03-28

New camp will assist efforts to help tornado survivors rebuild

by Evan Silvestein

LOUISVILLE * In the wake of recent pulverizing tornadoes, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) plans to open a volunteer village in central Florida next month to house faith-based responders from around the country and across a wide-spectrum of religious denominations.

Presbyterians, Methodists and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) members among others will team to assist area residents with cleanup and rebuilding following the powerful twisters that ripped across the Sunshine state's midsection last Christmas and again last month.

PDA, the disaster-response and relief arm of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), plans to open the volunteer village by April 15 on the grounds of the Duvall Presbyterian Home in Glenwood, FL.

"Things are picking up," said PDA coordinator Susan Ryan.
"We're getting a lot of volunteers ready to move in already."

The Duvall home is a ministry of the Synod of South Atlantic, serving the needs of developmentally disabled children and adults. The home is situated on 250 acres in Volusia County, about 35 miles northeast of Orlando, FL, and about 20 miles west of Daytona Beach, FL.

Temporary housing units at the village called "pods" will be able to accommodate up to 90 volunteers at one time. The camp will serve as a staging area for relief and recovery work primarily in Volusia County with some taking place in Lake County.

Rotating volunteer teams from churches and other organizations will work in the region for just a few days or a week while others will stay longer.

On Feb. 2, catastrophic storms packing Florida's deadliest tornadoes in a decade cut a 40-mile swath of destruction across Volusia County as well as Lake, Seminole and Sumter counties. Twenty-one people were killed with more than 500 homes destroyed and over 1,500 dwellings damaged.

The storm struck just as residents were picking up the pieces following a series of powerful tornadoes that tore through the area on Christmas day, damaging more than 200 mobile homes in and around DeLand, FL, as well as dozens of single-family residences and at least three apartment buildings.

Since the tornadoes, PDA has been working with Central Florida Presbytery and area relief officials to formulate a response to the disaster.

The Florida village is modeled after similar sites PDA currently operates in Mississippi and News Orleans in response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

"The village has now become a standardized kind of schematic," Ryan said. "Same equipment, same layout. It's really working fine. It's working really better than expected in many ways."

Establishing the village in central Florida grew out of conversations between PDA, Central Florida Presbytery, Volusia Interfaith Interagency Networking in Disaster (VIND), and Lake and Sumter County Emergency Response (LASER).

Then disaster-relief agencies related to various mainline Protestant denominations looking for a place to house their volunteers responding to the disaster became interested in sending teams to PDA's soon-to-open village.

Presbyterian officials are working with groups from other denominations through VIND, according to the Rev. Paige McRight, executive presbyter of Central Florida Presbytery, who has been working closely with PDA on the village project.

"This rebuild is an ecumenical effort," McRight said. "It's not just our denomination but we're partners with Methodists and Disciples of Christ and others in this work."

PDA will coordinate reservations and incoming work teams and manage the camp, which will be its first volunteer village in Florida. A retired couple from the Presbyterian Church in Canada will serve as village managers for the first three months the camp is open, Ryan said.

Ryan said numerous phone calls have already started coming in from churches interested in sending volunteer work crews to the village.

Meanwhile, Presbyterian churches in Central Florida Presbytery have been very generous, McRight said.

She said at least a quarter of the churches in the presbytery have expressed an interest in helping, many have taken up offerings raising at least $40,000 for the response so far.

Presbyterian churches near the path of the tornadoes have assisted affected residents by serving as shelters and feeding people, McRight said. She said other churches have sent in work teams to assist with debris removal.

North Lake Presbyterian Church in Lady Lake, FL; First Presbyterian Church in Wildwood, FL; First Presbyterian Church in Maitland, FL; and First Presbyterian Church in DeLand, have been heavily involved in the cleanup, McRight said.

"It makes me proud to be a Presbyterian that we can offer this kind of resource to the ecumenical community," McRight said referring to the Presbyterian churches and the volunteer village.

To register work teams for the village, phone the Presbyterian call center toll-free at 866-732-6121.

Financial contributions for Florida storm relief may be sent through normal mission-giving channels; designate gifts for U.S. disaster, account DR000176. To make a gift by credit card, call PresbyTel at (800) 872-3283 or give online.
[http://www.pcusa.org/give/online/projectSelectAction.do?numberString=DR000176]
Checks payable to the PC(USA) can also be mailed to:
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Central Receiving Service, 100 Witherspoon St., Louisville, KY 40202-1396.