The Dog Soldiers have adopted the town of Pearlington, Mississippi as part of their long term community service work.
We continue to send teams of volunteers to Pearlington to help in any manner necessary.
Visit this link to support fundraising for Pearlington http://www.hikingtohelp.com
See our Katrina Photo Gallery for pictures
"I must say that if the Code of Honour was in the Dictionary, you guys working in Pearlington would be the picture beside it. That is walking the talk!!!" .... Quote from Eileen, a civilian volunteer who partnered up with Dog Soldiers in Pearlington to build sheds and help with other jobs.
Click on the following links for Pearlington/Katrina related sites:
http://www.pearlingtonreportcard.blogspot.com/ Pearlington Report Card
http://www.pearlington.blogspot.com/
http://www.dsi-katrina.blogspot.com/ (Has story of Holly's Library - we built)
http://www.networkforgood.org/topics/animal_environ/hurricanes/
The following describes one of our early visits to Hurricane Katrina damaged areas.
On September 30, 2005, fifteen Dog Soldiers along with a number of other volunteers from the Atlanta area traveled to southern Mississippi to assist in the clean up effort following Hurricane Katrina. We pulled a trailer filled with 300 back packs and school supplies bound for several of the devastated schools in Pearlington and Long Beach Mississippi. In addition, we had a full size van filled to the brim with clothes donated by the local citizens of Atlanta.
After arrival and settling in to our accommodations on the floor of the Presbyterian Church in Diamond Head, we delivered 200 of our backpacks to the School district in the Pearlington area. At the high school we found a veritable nerve center for assistance in that area. It was one of the few buildings that suffered no damage in the storm and it now housed rescue units, fire units, police units and a number of other assistance units from all over the country. Having been on the job for a number of weeks without a break many of the good sumartans looked tired but were friendly and helpful to us as we unloaded our backpacks.
Following our delivery of the backpacks we caravanned south into Pearlington. We proceeded in a stunned silence, shocked by the destruction south of I-10. Entire neighborhoods scoured, leaving nothing, not so much as a foundation block. A condominium neighborhood of hundreds of homes gone, nothing left but the pylons and and ghosts, debris waving gently in the treetops. Several hundred yards inland from the marina at Diamond Head, in the middle of a stand of pine trees, sat a 34 foot fishing boat looking as pristine as if it was on the showroom floor, having floated in on the 25 foot storm surge and deposited serenely in the middle of the forest. These scenes simultaneously shock and energize you into a mindset of what can I do to help this.
Our next stop was at the home of Sandra, a woman in her 70s that had two large trees tri-sect her home during the storm. Luckily she was not injured and was living in a tent beside her destroyed home. Our task was to clear a path and area for a FEMA trailer beside her home. Our crew attacked the mass of fallen trees and thick undergrowth with vigor and in three hours of chainsaw buzzing and tree hauling we had cleared out most of the required area. We were followed by a crew with a bobcat that finished off the pad and driveway. Before we left, the Dog Soldier crew dipped into their pockets and pooled funds to repay Sandra for the tithing money she had contributed to another man in need following the storm.
We moved on to the local school where a distribution center was set up for food, clothing and other supplies for the hurricane refugees. We unloaded the rest of our contributed supplies at the center and helped build a signboard for information posting. This center was a beehive of volunteers from around the country doing everything from unloading donated goods to serving meals. In addition to the volunteers, we saw FEMA employees and volunteers, police from all over the country and military personnel. It was well organized and the supply of goods in the center was impressive.
The Dog Soldiers are packed and ready for our next trip coming up the weekend before thanksgiving. We will be building storage shelters for people living in FEMA shelters and trailers to store their belongings while their houses are fixed or rebuilt. The rewards we have received for the efforts in Mississippi are far more than the small contribution we made there. We invite anyone that wishes to help to join us and reap these same rewards.