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Hoosier United Methodist News Archives
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July/August 2006 |
New York group to help rebuild Indiana church
By Alex Davis
alexdavis@courier-journal.com
DEGONIA SPRINGS, Ind. - When a tornado ripped through this Warrick County community last November, three people were killed and a local landmark was destroyed.
"When you see it go back up, it's going to be a healing process for the whole area." - Jeff Parness |
The Baker Chapel United Methodist Church, with its pointed white steeple facing Ind. 62, still hasn't been rebuilt.
But in three months, the effort will get a boost from a group of 30 people from New York City who know all too well the feeling of unexpected disaster.
DeGonia Springs has been selected as this year's destination for the New York Says Thank You Foundation, a nonprofit group created in 2003 in response to the outpouring of aid from across the nation after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which destroyed the World Trade Center's twin towers.
"It really is a humbling thing," said Sidney Gerber, a retired electrician who was married in the church in 1964. "It blows you away when you think so many people are willing to help."
The foundation's volunteers pay a visit each Sept. 11 to a community struck by disaster. In DeGonia Springs, those volunteers will join local firefighters, university students and members of the United Methodist, Amish and Mennonite communities for a weekend of labor.
Jeff Parness, the foundation's director and founder, lost a business partner in the 9/11 attacks. He visited DeGonia Springs June 9 to survey the community and plan for the trip.
He said the group picked southwestern Indiana partly because the Nov. 6 storm was so unexpected.
"Something struck me immediately about how devastating it was, and how much of a surprise it was," Parness said of the tornado, which killed 24 people, Indiana's deadliest storm in three decades.
Parness said about half of the New York group will be firefighters, and the rest will be skilled laborers.
Tough to remember
Most of the destruction in DeGonia Springs has been cleared away, but the tornado is still a difficult memory.
Gerber and his wife, Marsha, said it was overwhelming that a group of volunteers would come all the way from New York to raise the church's new walls and hammer on its roof.
Tears welled in Marsha Gerber's eyes as she described missing the electric candles perched in the windows of Baker Chapel, glowing toward the highway at night.
The Gerbers said they were concerned that some of the church's 140 members would leave the congregation after the building was destroyed, but that hasn't been the case.
Instead, the congregation recently approve the details of an estimated $1.4 million rebuilding project that will roughly double the size of the building.
The new facility will have 14,600 square feet, with a sanctuary that will seat 190, a larger Sunday school area and an improved social hall.
Because insurance covered only a portion of the loss, the congregation still needs about $350,000 in donations and labor to finish the project.
The Rev. Randy Anderson, The United Methodist Church's disaster coordinator for the Evansville District in Indiana, said the church hopes to be able to worship in the new building by Christmas.
He said the foundation should be finished by the time the New York volunteers arrive. There could be more than 100 people working the weekend of Sept. 9-11.
Parness said the group also wants to plant trees along the tornado's path through Vanderburgh and Warrick counties.
Like Parness, whose business partner in a software company was on the 106th floor of the World Trade Center, most of the foundation's volunteers have a personal connection to the attacks.
Derek Miller, a 24-year-old volunteer firefighter from Warrick County, said he spent hours performing search-and-rescue missions in the DeGonia Springs area after the tornado.
He said that the community's residents are used to looking out for each other and not relying on outside help, but that people are looking forward to the New York foundation's visit, especially if it gives the church a boost on its path to recovery.
Individuals or congregations wishing to contribute to this project may do so through the South Indiana Conference Baker Chapel Advanced Special and send contributions to Jennifer Gallagher, Conference Treasurer, South Indiana Conference of The United Methodist Church, 1520 South Liberty Drive, Bloomington, IN 47403-5167.
Alex Davis serves as a reporter at the Louisville, Ky., Courier-Journal. This story was used with the permission of The Courier-Journal © 2006.
Last updated on 25 Apr 2008