Week 2 - Hurricane Relief in Port Charlotte, FL

Life on the road we assume will always be unpredictable. This includes where we will go and especially who we will serve with. The bus was parked in Port Charlotte, FL this past week at New Day Christian Church. Word of mouth from the splendid people we worked with in Wauchula, FL sent us on our travels here. We were joined at the church with a disaster relief group from Indiana; International Disaster Emergency Services (IDES). IDES is a faith-based organization that seeks to serve those affected by unpredictable events such as Hurricane Ian. They facilitate volunteer organization and have done a wonderful job coordinating efforts all around the Port Charlotte area. We showed up Sunday night and they gave us the warmest welcome possible. Following our hellos, we were introduced to the silliest group of retirees we’ve ever met, the Villagers.

A Lovely Bunch

If you’ve never heard of The Villages, it’s worth your own internet research, especially if you’re on the verge of retirement. A church from that community had organized a group of members to come to Port Charlotte to volunteer in hurricane relief. Luckily for us, our paths crossed. I asked one of the villagers, Nick DiGriore, to describe The Villages. He said, “it is an area set aside in central Florida of 130,000 seniors, ACTIVE seniors, who want to have a GOOD retirement”. Nick continued to list off many facts about the community, here are a few.

·      110 recreation centers,

·      108 swimming pools,

·      The most golf holes in one community in the entire world with 711 golf holes,

·      127 pickleball courts, also most in the world

Nick described it as “Disneyworld for retirees”. This rag tag group caravanned down from their “bubble” as they call it to give away their time in the same manner we did. At first, I was unsure what their efforts would look like, but oh man they brought some energy. This crowd scooted around just as quickly as we could, climbing on roofs, cutting down trees, and consistently marching debris to the curb to clear homes for the people of Port Charlottes. Our respect for this crowd is immense and we are thrilled that we got to work beside them and learn from them this whole week.

As we traveled closer to the epicenter of the storm this week, we weren’t sure what to expect. The storm cleanup efforts in Port Charlotte were more broadcasted, so more attention had been given to this area. Although the storm struck some two and half weeks ago, there were still homes in tough shape. The curbs were beyond loaded with tree and house debris. We spent the first day here with one of our connections, Hank, who is an ex-youth pastor turned bug exterminator. He led us to two homes in need of muck outs, a clearing process, including ripping out walls that were destroyed by water damage.

Home in Port Charlotte following Hurricane Ian

Nick got to join us in clearing this house!

The rest of the week we helped IDES with their relief efforts. This included continual tarping of roofs that STILL had water coming in the homes. We were happy to help, but we were served up with an interesting challenge. They SPLIT us up! This traumatic turn of events caught us all off guard and had my mind in a spiral. It would be easy for me to write about my experience in this but to get Cain and Josh’s perspectives, I took liberties to read their journals to see how it was for them. This is what I found….

Cain:

Dearest diary,

Today for the first time since our journey began Davis josh and I were split up. Right away It felt as if a piece of me was missing and I was left vulnerable and afraid in this new world surrounded by strangers. Luckily one of the “villagers” immediately sensed my loneliness and we quickly developed a fiery relationship. She calls me Romeo and I call her Juliet for our love is a forbidden one. She wants me to come back to the villages with her but as I’m not 55 yet they won’t let me in unless we are wed… I think I’m going to ask for her hand at the end of the week!

Have not told josh and Davis yet but I trust they will understand.

Josh:

Today is a good day. I asked the volunteer director if he could split Davis, Cain and I up today for work and he said no and so I offered him $10 and he said no so then I offered him $20 and he said no so then I offered him our Blackstone grill and he said yes. It was nice to finally be able to be the tallest person in my group and I was able to sit in the front seat because no one else in my group knew how to work maps on their phone.

Our separation taught us how to remain unified in our divisions, let me introduce you to our separate teams we created to relax our separation anxiety.

Team Abraham Lincoln

Team Phun

Team Shoe Glue

A lot was accomplished here in Port Charlotte, by the end of the week we had reached the bottom of the stack of roof tarping jobs. I give a ton of credit for this accomplishment to my roof partner, Alan, not a Villager just a local wishing to lend a hand. At the age of 76, Alan scampered around a roof just as good as the rest of us.

Alan of Port Charlotte, Florida

Thursday and Friday, our efforts in the storm clean up looked different. We spent time clearing out yard debris and houses with water damage. In some cases, these homes would be loaded with downed trees surround all parts of the house. Luckily, we had a whole village of “Villagers” to make swift work in those cases. Cain always had a lot of support when using his chainsaw.

Cain with plenty of chainsaw enthusiasts

Along with all the work being accomplished, some fun needed to be had when the days would come to an end. We really wanted to take the Villagers bowling on Wednesday night but unfortunately, all the lanes were closed. Instead, we went on a LOST party bus cruise to a local pier and watched the sunset together. They were overjoyed by the experience, so much so that they felt they needed to repay us for our gesture. During our Friday night dinner at the church, The Villagers snuck off before dessert and then returned to perform their own version of YMCA by “The Village People”.  We were amazed and couldn’t help but join in on one chorus with them.

Can’t help but sing along

Following all our work for the week, Hank and Ricky (our firefighter friend from Wauchula) wanted to show us a true Florida experience. Hank’s style was to bring us to his father in-law’s house. Who fittingly has one of the largest reptile collections in Florida. His name is Chris Clark, and he gave us a 2-hour tour of his complex which included 300-year-old snapping turtles, tortoises, mutant turtles, and snakes. Ricky had another style of a good time. We drove back to Wauchula and met him at his house to go BOW FISHING. Although only one little fishy was struck, the concept of glaring into the glowing water at midnight with a bow and arrow in hand was a lifetime experience. We are grateful for these two guys that have been part of our adventure already and appreciate their willingness to entertain us after this week’s work.

Bonnie the Tortoise

Bow Hunting with Ricky and Hank

At the end of second week’s adventure, we were met with a crossroads of direction. The true first of many. I’m lucky to serve alongside Josh and Cain, two men that are seeking people’s needs constantly. Conversations with them breathe nothing but selflessness and energize me with spirit to continually serve anyone we encounter. With a need to circle back to our home state of South Carolina. We are going to start our journey back north this next week, with pit stops to seek service opportunities in Florida’s major cities on our way out.

Additionally, Channel 5 News did an article about our disaster relief experience in Florida, you can read it here.