Organization on mission to help victims of Katrina

Mission of Love members went to New Orleans and surrounding areas.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
Members of an Austintown-based mission organization were among the first people to deliver food, water and supplies to many Hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans.
Kathleen Price of Austintown, founder and director of Mission of Love Foundation, led three cars, a tractor trailer and a smaller truck full of supplies and 12 people to hurricane-ravaged New Orleans last week.
After sorting through some bureaucracy to find out who they could help, they found members of the city's police department who were working out of a Wal-Mart.
"We were the first people to bring them food, water and supplies," Brad Jagger, pastor of the First Federated Church in North Jackson, said in a telephone interview from Louisiana.
His church supports Mission of Love and he's one of the volunteers.
Helping those who help others
For the two weeks since Katrina struck, the officers hadn't received help from any government agency or charitable group, he said.
"It's really unbelievable," said Rose Hatcher of Baton Rouge, La., who is housing some of the Mission volunteers and helping with distribution. "The New Orleans police are supposed to be taking care of the people in New Orleans and nobody's thinking about them."
With a doctor and nurses among the Mission of Love ranks, they provided medical care, stitching wounds and offering first aid along with distributing supplies.
Many of the officers lost their homes; some of their family members perished, and Jagger said they told horrific stories of what they saw.
The officers and others who found their way to the staging area where Mission of Love was distributing supplies all were appreciative of the help, the pastor said.
Besides the aid, volunteers also tried to add some fun for inhabitants of the ravaged areas.
"One day we took a propane grill and had a barbecue in the middle of New Orleans," Jagger said. "We had hamburgers and hot dogs and we fed tons of people, but the idea wasn't just to feed them. We wanted to give them some hope and let them know that someone out there cares about them."
The crew left that area Wednesday and headed for Jean Lafitte, a town about 10 miles south of New Orleans composed of three fishing communities, to help victims there.
"We've heard that about 65 percent of the homes there were destroyed," Jagger said.
The team will head home later this week because Price has another mission trip planned. But she says more crews from her organization will be headed in coming weeks to help Katrina victims.
"It's ongoing," Price said.
Donations may be sent to Mission of Love Foundation, 2054 Hemlock Court, Youngstown 44515.
"It's all hand-to-hand and heart-to-heart," Price said. "All of the donations go directly to the people."