On our last full day of work, projects began winding down and my team finished nailing down one last roof in Long Beach for the Pass Christian Fire Chief’s house.

All of our teams felt so accomplished, successful.

At the end of the day, we gathered in the Pass Christian City Park that overlooks the ocean.  This was the park we cleaned on our first day here—it is the centerpiece of the community, and it had been decimated by the hurricane.  Now the park had a brand new gazebo with beautiful landscaping surrounding it. 

Community members came out to make us dinner.  In fact, Renee (Megan and Jackson’s mother) had her husband, a merchant marine, prepare freshly caught shrimp for the group.  Everyone enjoyed a pleasant evening and final feast in Mississippi before we are ready to leave tomorrow.

After dinner, Ron Perkins, co-chair of the steering committee for the trip, thanked the entire group for the week’s hard work.  Kent State United for Biloxi volunteers completed projects in over 60 homes around the Biloxi community this week, he said.  That’s at least 60 families we helped onto the road to the future.

But we kept the mood light that evening.  For the entire week we had planned for the talent show right after the final dinner.  Most of the crews spent days planning their performances during work breaks. The top three teams would win cash prizes.

I joined my roofing crew in a performance of “We Will Roof You” (inspired by the lyrics of Queen’s “We Will Rock You,” of course), using brooms, buckets and hammers for musical props in true “Stomp” fashion.  Our second place finish netted the group $250, which we donated to God’s Katrina Kitchen, an organization that provided all of our meals throughout the week.  All of the groups who won talent show glory donated their cash prizes to support the Katrina rebuilding effort.  The memories were enough for us.

For the past seven months, we had all listened, watched or read stories about what had happened and what was happening on the Gulf Coast.  But now we know the truth and have helped the recovery effort onto its feet.

The Kent State United for Biloxi trip has left lasting impressions on all of us.  It will take years for these people to rebuild, and nothing will ever be truly “back to normal.”  But these people are rebuilding their lives. Their determination has been awe-inspiring.

Our progress is finally visible today. Volunteer groups worked in the most devastated areas of East Biloxi. It’s been seven months since the hurricane but some roads in the area are still impassible and plenty of people are still living in tents. Right now casinos appear to be the only booming businesses in the region.

This week, our Biloxi groups were able to clear debris, lay roofs and hang dry wall for a region in shambles. We’re really beginning to feel like we have helped rebuild something, help residents get on the road to normalcy. And the residents have shown their appreciation with so many kind words and plenty of food for the volunteers!

Some volunteers worked on a Vietnamese Catholic church this week and its priest Father Phan’s house. At the end of Wednesday, church members treated the volunteers to a traditional Vietnamese meal for all of their hard work.

We are all becoming more comfortable with our surroundings in southern Mississippi. Each day our productivity increases as we become better acquainted with the relief tasks at hand. 

At my worksite on Wednesday, in fact, we finished policeman Kirt’s roof.  For several of us, this trip was our first time on a roof, our first time using a hammer.  Kirt asked some of his roofing-experienced friends to help out the group.  They offered pointers, but really complimented the work we were doing.  Our morale was really high because we felt that we were doing a good job, a great job for a greater good.

We hope that Kirt and his family will soon be able to reestablish themselves in their home that we helped repair.

With all of this work accomplished, it was nice to return to the tent city for a cook out. While I was waiting in line for food, I spotted two familiar faces in the crowd: Megan and Jackson, the two children I met a few days ago while clearing debris at their house.

It was nice to see these two children again. They ran around the campsite, laughing and smiling. They were really having a good time.  But watching them, it really began to hit me that we could make a difference in the lives of children like Megan and Jackson. We would never understand what they had been through over the past seven months, but perhaps what we are doing can help them keep moving forward.  I hope that someday they might be able to look back on what they have survived.

I do not want to forget any of the faces of Biloxi, any of the experiences I have had. I am so thankful I was given the opportunity to make a difference. I hope these people continue to have the faith to rebuild their lives here in Biloxi, Miss.

Today I worked with the roofing team at a house right outside of Pass Christian. It belonged to a man named Kirt, his wife, Amanda, and their 16-month-old daughter, Hailey. Their neighborhood, which is located more inland, had most of its houses remain intact after the hurricane. 

Kirt, a Pass Christian policeman, stayed behind to work at the station on the late-August day that Katrina hit. His wife and daughter had left for Destin, Fla. for safety from the hurricane. That night, however, the police station called to tell Kirt not to come in. He remembers being upset; he wanted to work at the station during the storm. 

He wouldn’t find out until days later how grateful he would be for that call: as Katrina wailed on the region, water surge flooded the entire Pass Christian police station. Kirt's fellow officers were forced to seek safety on the station roof for several hours.

Kirt remembers that the station wasn’t operating for nearly two weeks after the hurricane. Roads were impassible. Many people picked up their lives and moved away from the Mississippi coast.

Some who have chosen to stay are living out of trailers until their houses are rebuilt. But the rebuilding process has become long and tedious to some, impossible to withstand for others. Katrina may be over, but their lives are far from back to normal.

Our roofing team of 18 volunteers worked enthusiastically all day on Kirt’s roof. Down the street, another team worked to repair the Pass Christian fire chief’s house. Kirt’s family provided lunch and he played music from his patrol car as we worked. The 18 of us worked well as a team. Getting to know their story, getting to know the family made us realize that our work was actually helping a family. This family.

With all this in mind, it was an enjoyable day. A productive day. Alongside laying roofs (and learning how), coming to Biloxi has given all of us perspective of the “bigger picture.” Last week I don’t think many of us could have imagined what it would be like to be separated from our families for months, our neighbors gone, our lives forced to start over from scratch. So, it’s rewarding, really, to get that perspective for a little bit of handy work.

I signed up on a whim. I didn’t know anyone else going, but I felt that this was something I was meant to do. 

When we first arrived on the Gulf Coast on Sunday, the place looked like a ghost town. Concrete slabs lay where homes once stood. Street lights and utility poles slanted downward from the 40-foot water surge during Katrina. It was discouraging to swallow the reality of the destruction. 

So, I wondered: How can 400 people possibly make a difference in the midst of this devastation?

One of our first clean-up efforts was the Pass Christian City Park. The park is a central symbol for city of Pass Christian. While all 400 of us were clearing the debris from the park, residents were stopping, chatting and taking pictures with us. The residents were all welcoming and appreciative of the work we are doing.

Monday we split into different teams and were taken to various places throughout Pass Christian and Biloxi. I was with a group of about 40 people sent to help a woman, Renee, clear debris from the outside of her house. Renee’s two children, Megan and Jackson, greeted us as we stepped off the bus. They handed each of the Kent State volunteers purple flowers that they hand-picked themselves. 

Renee’s house is the only house on her street that remains intact. When Katrina hit, the storm surge carried her house into the middle of the street. She said when she told her husband, who works as a merchant marine and was not home during Katrina, he did not believe her story. With the help of movers, the house is now raised on 12-foot stilts on the original foundation. The family is not able to live in the house; they are now staying in a trailer next it. 

I talked to Renee’s 6-year-old daughter, Megan. She figured out we had the same name and followed me around all afternoon. She told us she took ballet. When we asked her to show us some of her dance moves, she did a few twirls for us. At the end of the day, we packed up and said our goodbyes. We hope to return to Renee’s house tomorrow.

After this experience I realized that even though 400 people cannot rebuild all of Biloxi and Pass Christian, we are making a difference so far.

More than 400 students, faculty, staff and community members traveled to Pass Christian and Biloxi, Miss., this past weekend. The group will be in the Gulf Coast region through April 1, during the university’s spring break, in an effort to help residents of the area devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

The Kent State United for Biloxi volunteers are working on projects including reconstruction of homes, medical clinics and childcare facilities, as well as beach clean-up, and may offer basic medical services to area residents.

The contingent includes a tree surgeon, electrician, plumber and medical personnel, among other skilled workers. More than half of the volunteers are Kent State students, and over 50 volunteers from the University of Akron are part of the group as well.

Organizers of this effort worked closely with contacts in Pass Christian and Biloxi to determine the needs of these communities.

The weekend weather hovered around the mid 60s, but the Kent State United for Biloxi volunteers have a balmy alternative spring break ahead of them. The forecast has mid- to upper-70s slated for the upcoming week's weather. So, the volunteers may come back with good tans, along with the job well done.

Bookmark this page to read daily updates from Kent State junior Megan Grote. She will report March 27 through April 1 on her week in Mississippi.

Follow the week's progression in "Snapshots of Biloxi," a collection of photographs updated each day that chronicles Kent State United for Biloxi volunteers' hard work in the hurricane-devastated Gulf Coast region.