Restoring a Home and Creating New Friends

Before break started, I made the decision to not attend the New Orleans trip because I wanted to help with disaster relief in New Jersey. So while I might not be traveling with all of you to New Orleans in the upcoming week, I do look forward to working with you for the three days of New Jersey relief.

I personally have been working on New Jersey relief for the past couple of weeks doing various relief efforts with the Stafford Township Relief Center in Manahawkin and an AmeriCorps group.

During my first week of break, I worked with the Stafford Township Relief Center in Manahawkin. A toy drive was held for Sandy relief and donations of food, water, clothes, toiletries, and Christmas decorations were handed out at this event. It was my job to help people who came in and made sure that they received everything that they needed in the recovery process. Though this project was short it was an incredible experience. Everybody who came in was so grateful for the supplies that they were receiving, and all of their stories were absolutely heartbreaking. The volunteers I worked with were also very inspirational. The amount of donations that they received was unbelievable! A man even came in at one point and said that he had about 30 buckets filled with cleaning supplies to donate; this man drove all the way from Pennsylvania to donate them in person!

I also just finished working with an AmeriCorps group that was stationed in the Stafford Township Recreation Center. Throughout my time working with these AmeriCorps members I got worked on canvasing Long Beach Island as well as the surrounding areas to make sure that all the houses that needed to be gutted were; I also primarily worked on several houses and the work ranged from moving out water logged furniture to gutting a house to debris removal; and I also helped transfer damaged structures like sheds, barns, etc.

The group of AmeriCorps members that I was with was from Minnesota and they shared dozens of disaster relief stories with me—some relating to Sandy and some relating to other disasters in other countries. I absolutely loved working with them!

Unfortunately, we received heavy rains on one of the days I worked with them. Long Beach Island had flooded, completely flooded. All of the debris from houses and more from the ocean had washed up all over the island. We spent most of the following day cleaning up the debris that was on the major roads and putting them back into piles on the sides of the street.

I know that as Bonner’s some of us have to get “AmeriCorps hours”—me being one of them—but I never actually realized what that meant until I did this work. For a week I wore a vest that had the AmeriCorps logo on it and every time I walked somewhere people would come up to me and ask for help or tell me about a neighbor, friend, or relative that needed help. I could not believe it. The stories that I heard. I am really at a loss for words. I really think that once in a while Bonner should get a chance to work one-on-one with some AmeriCorps members to learn from their experiences.

I hope all of you had very happy holidays! I am really looking forward to continuing my service and reuniting with my fellow Bonners to share my experience!

--Shayna Innocenti