damage

By Griffin Pritchard

Recently, representatives of the National Episcopal Church gathered at Saint Thomas Episcopal Church to see what had been repaired and what still needed to be fixed.

Scott Spina, from Episcopal Relief and Development joined Eugene Johnson, contact for the Gulf Coast Dioces and Father Fred Lindstrom toured the church.

&uot;We had water damage to the wall due to the damage to the roof,&uot; Lindstrom said. &uot;We also had to take up our carpet and our pew cushions. Some of our kneelers that were hand-sewn by the ladies in the Parish got wet from Ivan.&uot;

As a result of this damage, the church was given $5,000 in relief money.

&uot;We were given five, I used four and gave the other thousand back,&uot; Lindstrom said.

The money was not only used on the church, it was also distributed into the Greenville community.

&uot;We take in donations from other Episcopalians following disasters,&uot; said Spina. &uot;Eugene was our Gulf Coast contact and he had asked about ways to get funding for his Diocese.&uot;

Two thousand dollars was sent to the Department of human resources to aid in the purchase of food and the payment of rent for people who were unable to do so.

The parish also sent another $500 to the YMCA.

The Y served as the local shelter for storm victims and for relief workers who had no lodging.

Another $500 was given to the Partners in Progress in Pine Apple.

&uot;We knew that Gulf Shores and Pensacola had been hit hard, but we didn’t know about anywhere north of there until the Bishop contacted me,&uot; Johnson said. &uot;After the storm, New York had informed that $10,000 had been wired to the Bishop of the Dioceses and we distributed it from there.&uot;

Episcopal Relief and Development works to provide emergency aid to Carribean and American families that have been hit by Ivan. ERD works with the local dioceses to provide critical assistance: emergency food, shelter, clothing and medicine for vulnerable families.