Local families provide shelter from the storm
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Jimmy says he has been watching relief efforts every night on TV and using the Internet to try and find out how to help.
“I don’t think some people around here really have any idea how bad the situation is down there,” Jimmy said. “I’ve been watching the news from different sources. I think it looks like it’s just too bad of a situation, and it’s taken forever to really help the people down there.”
Many families who have been displaced by the loss of their homes desperately need a long-term place to live, a place where they can begin to put their fractured lives back together.
That’s why Perry and the Zavogiannises have stepped up to the plate and are working to provide long-term housing for at least one extended family of 15 people from the shattered city of New Orleans. The family includes the parents, several children, with the mother expecting another within a month, along with grandparents from both sides.
The Zavogiannises found out about the family on the Internet and decided to help.
The couple has a house on Boyd Avenue that was unoccupied, but needed some work and had to be furnished. They contacted Perry who has a three-bedroom cabin in Campaign, and he offered to let the family use his place as well. Neither Perry or the Zavogiannises will be charging the family rent.
“They are like three or four families,” Jimmy said. “We owned the house over there and it’s been empty for awhile, so we could just go ahead and get everything ready for them and put somebody up.
“When you see what’s going on and those people don’t have any place to go,” he added, “you just want to help.”
Perry has been involved in various charities over the past five years, so for him, this was just an extension of that work. Perry said his heart went out to the storm victims.
“It’s just pitiful,” said Perry, “really pitiful. I wish I could do more.”
Both the Zavogiannises and Perry were pleased with the reaction locally when people found out about their efforts.
“It was amazing how, as soon as we opened our mouths what we were doing, how many people just offered to help,” said Jimmy, who owns Gondola.
Barr’s and Warren County Furniture provided furniture and appliances to furnish the houses.
“They were incredible,” Jimmy said. “They gave us whatever we needed.”
Treva Ferrell, of Party and Novelty, a friend of the Zavogiannises, went shopping and purchased groceries, dishes and cooking utensils.
“I made about three trips to Wal-Mart because my van would only hold so much,” Ferrell said, noting her efforts didn’t seem like work at all. “I had a ball. It was like shopping for Christmas.”
Meanwhile, the Zavogiannises and Ferrell’s son Carl, among others, began cleaning, painting and fixing up the house on Boyd Avenue, which is now ready. According to Jimmy, the family should begin moving in some time today.
The Zavogiannises and Perry hope others will come forward locally to provide the same kind of help, and he feels certain that will be the case.
“I think the American people are just too good-hearted to let something like this just go ignored,” Jimmy said. “I’ve been here for 30 years and I’ll tell you, you don’t just go somewhere and make it your new home if you don’t think the people in the country you are moving into are the greatest.”