Years ago I was driving my kids to school when they heard the story of Myra Ingram on the radio. Myra had lost everything in Katrina…including her daughter who had just given birth. Myra moved to Baton Rouge to raise her grandson. She just couldn’t stomach the idea of flooding again. Yet, a decade later, storms hit her new home town and destroyed her house once again. The pain was just too much to even hear on the radio. So, we got a group of kids and adults together, tracked down Myra in Baton Rouge and brought supplies to not only her but three schools in her area.
We worked for hours clearing garbage, searching for things to salvage, raking her yard, sanitizing her home and feeding her neighbors. At the end of the day, the kids gave Myra gift certificates for furniture and appliances with donations they had been able to collect. I’ll never forget standing outside her damaged home in that moment…debris piled up along the roads, the town smelling like sewer….Myra was there with her grandson..her eyes filling with tears of gratitude….She hugged us and said it was then that she could exhale…it was then…that she knew eventually everything would be OK.