More than seven months after Harvey ravaged the Greater Houston region in late August, Heart for Texas received $369,000 April 8 in partnership with The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod Disaster Response Team, Gallery Furniture and Salem Lutheran Church to provide new furniture sets to local families flooded by Harvey. As of April 5, the organization had already delivered 14 sets of furniture—bedroom, kitchen, dining and living room pieces—to homeowners in the Bear Creek neighborhood in Katy, Disaster Relief Coordinator Laurie Holleway said.
“That was our first big delivery of what we look forward to being our next focus in our ministry,” she said.
Since August, Heart for Texas has provided relief and rebuilding services to individuals whose homes sustained flood damage.
“That’s our goal with Heart for Texas is to get families back in their homes,” Holleway said.
Heart for Texas was formed by members of Salem Lutheran in Tomball and Trinity Klein Lutheran Church in Spring. As hurricane recovery efforts began, Salem Lutheran received truckloads of donated supplies from across the nation. Within a week of Harvey’s destruction, Holleway said Tomball-based company BJ Services provided Salem Lutheran with 100,000-square-feet of warehouse space to receive, store and send out supplies for recovery efforts. Trinity Klein Lutheran began gathering volunteers to send out into homes, Holleway said.
The organization—which relies fully on volunteer labor, monetary donations and donated supplies—has welcomed volunteers from across the nation. Salem Lutheran manages the supply warehouse and coordinates hospitality services for the volunteers—including a place to sleep, three daily meals and laundry service—while Trinity Klein Lutheran dispatches volunteers into homes, Holleway said.
“People have come from all over the United States, from New York City to Oregon and Washington,” Holleway said. “There are very few states we haven’t received [volunteers] from at this point, so that’s really exciting. We have all these teams that come in and are just ready to work.”
Holleway said she estimates the hospitality team has served between 7,500 and 9,000 dinner meals in the last seven months to more than 1,500 volunteers. In March alone, Salem Lutheran housed 250 volunteers, each staying a week on average.
Together, Salem Lutheran and Trinity Klein Lutheran have helped rebuild more than 200 homes in flooded neighborhoods, including Ravensway in Cypress and Bear Creek.
“The value of the labor alone represents over a half a million dollars that we’ve saved homeowners,” she said. “We really don’t have boundaries on where we’ll go if we can get people there.”
From its warehouse, Heart for Texas has also shipped supplies to churches and nonprofit organizations working to rebuild homes from Beaumont to Corpus Christi, Holleway said.
“We all kind of come under that Heart for Texas umbrella,” she said. “We partner with non-Lutheran churches and nonprofits as well.”
Although rebuilding efforts have transitioned from muck-out to move-in, Holleway said numerous volunteers are needed for tasks like hanging sheetrock, repairing fences, installing plumbing and enhancing landscaping. Volunteers with any sort of home repair skills are needed as well as any individual able to make phone calls to homeowners, Holleway said. However, Heart for Texas’ greatest need is for financial contributions to fund the purchase of supplies, construction materials and appliances for homeowners.
“We’re not losing momentum, and I’m amazed at that,” she said. “It’s looking like it’s going to be a marathon, and we’re in it for the long haul. We don’t really know what that’s going to look like, but it’s going to require the continued, willing hands of helpers.”
Helping hands
To volunteer or donate, visit http://heartfortexas.com, call 832-510-7481 or email [email protected]. Supply requisition forms can also be found online.
