As you have been reading in various NGPP publications, the National Guild of Professional Paperhangers has been coordinating a National Charity Hang, New Orleans: Remodeling With Wallcovering, to help those in the New Orleans and Gulf States areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina.  Phase I of the project took place last July with several houses papered.  Those volunteering their talents were able to take part in the largest rebuilding effort in U.S. history and based on the feedback, it was truly gratifying but at the same time, sad because there was so much more we wished we could have done.

Phase II of the Hang was completed January 26-28, 2007 in New Orleans.  Nine homes and a school were beautified with wallcoverings including a custom mural in the school. Each house had between 20-36 rolls of wallcovering hung.  Many of these are the homes of area police officers who lost everything and are just now able to move back. 

As you can imagine and have probably seen in the media, this area's come back is a slow and frustrating process.  Homes scheduled to be completed are taking weeks and months longer than originally planned due to funding, scheduling, etc., making it difficult for contractors and volunteers to schedule projects such as ours.

Even with all of the frustrations, our Hang chairperson, Cyndi Green, C.P. was on top of everything (with some great help from other members), knowing that while the scope of the project was set, the plans and execution would take on a life of themselves.

We asked for volunteer installers to join us for this big event!  Were we ever wowed!  Nearly forty members and Guild friends participated and the NGPP, together with the Wallcoverings Association (WA), coordinated the event that took place as follows:

Thursday, January 25, 2007 - Arrivals of volunteers in the late afternoon and early evening to New Orleans
Friday, January 26, 2007 - All Day Hang
Saturday, January 27, 2007 - All Day Hang and Tour of the 9th Ward
Sunday, January 28, 2007 - Final Completions and Last Minute Issues and Departures

Several have asked, what was involved?

• Product donations by members of the Wallcoverings Association and NGPP Associate Members
• Volunteers were asked to bring their tools (depending on the distance and portability).  Our local members helped as well with set ups and tools.
• Volunteers were housed in a local hotel. 
• The Committee bought food and made "to-go" style breakfasts and brown bag lunches each day.  The group ate together at a local establishment for dinner each evening.
• Travel to and from New Orleans was the responsibility of the volunteer.
• Local ground transportation was done using the vehicles of local members. 

For those unable to participate, your continued support of our New Orleans: Rebuilding With Wallcovering project is appreciated and together, the industry will help beautify the homes and rebuild the community.

Project Status (January 12, 2007)

Cyndi Green, C.P., project leader has just returned home from New Orleans where she was meeting with the homeowners on the selection of wallcoverings for our project.  She squeezed in 12 appointments in two days, a feat in itself.  For those who have messages and emails into Cyndi, please know that she will be responding in the immediate future - she has not forgotten anyone.  Between Cyndi and the National Office staff, all volunteers will be notified with specifics in the coming week. 

The project has a total of 12 homes (two are being sheetrocked this week).

One of the homeowners had a death in the family and could not meet with Cyndi but we will have her taken care of before the installation.  In the day since the death, she has lost another family member.  They believe the stress has a lot to do with many of these unexpected deaths, another sad reality of the devastation.  As you can imagine, she will need time to grieve with the passing of two loved ones.  With the generosity of the wallcoverings industry, we hope to provide at least a little hope and joy to her family during this difficult time.

Cyndi has been taking pictures and working up bios on each family to share with the membership and volunteers.  Wallcovering and supply donations have been great!  Our associate members and the members of the Wallcoverings Association have been tremendous and generous.  We believe we have enough at this point and Cyndi asks that others willing to contribute hold off until Phase III of our New Orleans project.

Cyndi had her share of hugs from the homeowners and she is looking forward to the volunteers being able to experience what this project is all about.  For those unable to participate - we will keep you posted through pictures and stories.

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When the call went out for volunteers for the National Guild of Professional Paperhangers – “New Orleans Rebuilding with Wallcoverings” project, my first response was ‘forget about it.’  “How can I get the time off?  How much will the tickets cost?  Who will take care of the endless household chores?”  Etc, etc., etc.  However, that evening as I tried to fall asleep, my mind drifted back to August 1954.  I was twelve years old and living in a summer house in Bristol, Rhode Island with my parents and two brothers.  It was morning and a ‘Nor’easter’ was sweeping up Narragansett Bay.  The ‘Nor’easter’ was in fact an unexpected hurricane – whose name – Hurricane Carol – would later be imbedded in my memory forever.
 
In minutes, a rising sea surrounded our little beach house.  Tree limbs crashed about, boats broke loose only to smash against sea walls, and houses tumbled seaward as frantic people clung to their rooftops.  My parents scooped us up and we fled out the back door.  The water had already crept up to my chest.  We raced to our car (the water was at the exhaust pipe) and sped to higher ground.  Looking back, I watched in awe as waves surged over the roof of our cozy cottage.  Hours later, we returned only to find unbelievable destruction.  Today, January 2007, it could be called the ‘9th ward.’

Recalling these events from my past, I signed up for the “Rebuild New Orleans Project” with my son and business partner, Christopher Vaughn.  In New Orleans, we were welcomed at the airport by Dennis Gauthier, a local Guild member, who took us to the hotel.  The accommodations were comfortable beyond our expectations.  We introduced ourselves to the leader of the charity project, Cyndi Green.  A petite dynamo with an infectious smile and confident enthusiasm, she had already established herself as a “mover and shaker” in the leadership of the NGPP.  But today, it was more than that.  Cyndi exuded visible passion for the people of New Orleans.  Armed with only a cell phone and her SUV, she moved a cadre of forty wallcovering specialists through twelve different projects in the city of New Orleans.

Each day, we would set out with a bagged breakfast and lunch, drinks, snacks, and all the supplies and equipment to our various job sites.  In the complex planning and execution of this mammoth project, many other Guild members – especially Belinda Comboy –also a Louisiana resident and victim of Hurricane Katrina, ably assisted Cyndi.

Observing New Orleans now seventeen months after Hurricane Katrina, the scene for me, was hauntingly familiar.  Standing at the door of one residence, I was struck by the eerie silence, which bellowed through block after block, street after street, of abandoned homes.  Beneath torn rooftops and smashed windows and doors, houses stared back, skeleton-like at nothing in particular.  Debris spills out from windows everywhere.  There is no traffic in the streets.  Strange circles with letters and number markings are spray painted on house fronts – codes for what was discovered within.  Cries for help on rooftops are still painted there for rescue helicopters seventeen months earlier.

It is profoundly sobering to work in these devastated neighborhoods now.  One asks again and again, “Where are the people?  Why is the re-building moving so slowly?”  Here and there, only FEMA trailers that sprout mushroom-like from the lawn fronts punctuate the devastation of the battered landscape.  Each trailer states quietly, “I’M BACK!”

There is so much to be done.  “The road home” is yet to begin and yet this writer is still inspired by the energy and spirit of Cyndi and Belinda.  I only regret that I couldn’t do more.  In the midst of this profound sadness and destruction, I was able to smile because of a bumper sticker that I saw on my last day there.  It speaks of the spirit of survival that I found in New Orleans and the compassion of the volunteers who are giving so much.

P.S.  We will return!