After two years in the trenches here - I believe the most awe inspiring part of this volunteer work is the energy of the young to tackle what would seem, to most, a daunting task. And to do it with such joy, energy, and a generous heart.

The Red Cross and Keesler Air Force Base combined forces and orchestrated a make a difference day with 420 willing energetic volunteers arriving at the Kiln Arena in the early hours of Saturday morning.

After the pledge, a prayer, and speeches - it was all hands to the battle stations and out went the crews in buses, vans, cars - anything that would hold a passenger.

Our task was to clear an old volunteer camp that had been assembled on the ball field in Kiln two years prior and then left abandoned making the field not usable by the children. Fire ants and spiders didn’t deter this crew - the four tents were down in no time and off to Waveland to unload and assemble what we could prior to the deadline of 1.30pm. The County had not placed the dumpster there on the field as promised - so we could not complete the entire task. But that is a project for another crew next week. Time was of the essence as we only had a few hours - so we punted and kept moving forward.

Lois, Mike, Allan and Richie, our long term volunteers were there to see that the crew had everything they needed. Lois went off to fix lunch, I had to race back to the Pearl River County line to get the second crew their tools and gloves as they had been sent to that assignment without notifying me (and race back again in time to ferry the Waveland crew back to the arena a 70 mile round trip) and Mike along with Alan set about on erecting the first tent for volunteer housing - recycling tents.

The county line crew up at the Pearl River County had plowed into the roof on the garage with a chain saw and was doing well by the time I arrived with hammers, bars, and gloves. The snake lurking down in the cinder block left them with some concern for what the mess down the floor of the garage held. But they plowed on vowing to get as much done as they possibly could. A very very daunting task.

All-in-all, for this exercise, I put on 146 miles on my vehicle from 6.30am to 2pm. We were transporting 12 volunteers and a supply of tools to six more. It took four vehicles, four long term volunteers to drive, and gasoline for all four vehicles. Not only are the volunteers needed - so are the funds needed to provide the infrastructure to allow them to participate. This is said to show the effort it takes to get the task accomplished here where the area is so vast. Everything is done with an enormous amount of effort in this fractured world due to Katrina.

Eager willing volunteers like this can produce results in a day that take us weeks to accomplish while we wait for a crew with stamina enough to tackle some of these daunting tasks! What a fantastic day spent with people full of so much enthusiasm. I feel rejuvenated, the residents we helped today are thrilled, and maybe we have started a new wave of enthusiastic volunteerism. And at a time we so desperately need it.