New Bern Sun Journal - United Way US president: Craven gets A+ in recovery efforts

By Bill Hand
[email protected]
Original post on Sun Journal , New Bern

Pastor John Robinson talks with Mary Sellers, U. S. president of the United Way and other local representatives of disaster aid organizations.

Local recovery efforts have earned an A-plus score from top brass at the United Way World Wide.

The organizations U.S. president, Mary Sellers, touched down in New Bern as the first stop of a weeklong tour to visit areas affected by hurricanes Florence and Michael.

“We are visiting communities in the South East that have been impacted this past year,” she said. “We’re here in New Bern to learn about the collaborative nature of this community and how they’ve come together across sectors and across organizations to address the community’s most pressing needs.”

Apparently, she was quite impressed.

“From what I’ve learned in the time that I’ve been here, I would give this community an A-plus for the collaboration that’s going on.” She added that, “people are putting their organizations, egos and logos aside and just working together on what’s best for the community.

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“I think there are elements of what’s being done that could be models for other communities,” she said.

Sellers joined local representatives of United Way and the Craven County Disaster Recovery Alliance (CCDRA), including Sandra Phelps, executive director of United Way of Coastal Carolina for the local tour.

Their primary stop Monday morning was the New Hope Village at Neuse Forest.

New Hope Village is a work in progress, in which the Educational Building of the Neuse Forest Presbyterian Church in James City is being converted into dormitory-style housing for disaster recovery volunteers who come into the area.

Neuse Forest pastor and chairman of CCDRA John Robinson noted that the building was severely damaged in the storm. “The wind tore the ridge off the top of the building,” he said. ” It poured rain down in the building for four straight days.”

As a result the building was virtually gutted and is being reconstructed for its new purpose. It will feature bunk beds, computer rooms and other amenities for up to 60 volunteers who will change out every week or so. While there, workers will have meals in the fellowship hall next door, where a cook provided by the Fuller Center for Disaster Rebuilders will handle meals.

The center is a collaborative mission of several Presbyterian churches in the area and the Fuller Center for Disaster Rebuilders.

Aimed to be completed by June, he said there is already a waiting list of groups wanting to use the facilities.

Robinson said he fully expects the building to be occupied in connection with Florence recovery over the next several years as volunteers work to repair the homes of low-income homeowners who have no flood insurance.

Sellers also touched on the need for long-term recovery sources. “Sometimes after the media goes away and other organizations go away there’s still a lot more work to be done,” she said, “So instead of thinking of disasters in months, we’re thinking of them in multiples of years.”

Following New Bern, Sellers will visit Wilmington, Myrtle Beach and the Florida panhandle by week’s end.