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Just come off the roof of this house
on Briarfield Drive in Biloxi, Mississippi
where we're all working with Livingston CARES
to totally rehab the house.
So we've been stripping the roof entirely,
now we're taking a look at some of the roofboards
and some of the rafters which seem to be in bad shape.
This is the college's 16th visit.
We can really see that we're accomplishing something,
we're trying to totally redo this house in a month
in time for the birthday of the owner of the house who's been displaced for several years.
I'm Julie Butler, I'm a senior at SUNY Geneseo
This is my second time coming
I'm an education major
I guess I'm doing this for other people a lot because it's helping them,
but I do it just as much, if not more, for myself
because it doesn't feel like work, it just...
it's play to me.
Everyone wants to be here, you know,
no one's, like, complaining all the time and there's a really good attitude
and it's cold here but we just joke about it now.
Really, the only experience I've ever had with anything like this
was some carpentry work I did with my father
Built a table, but nothing like this on a roof, so...
To have President Dahl on the trip is amazing, he's so much fun
We're in the same work group, obviously, and we're in the same car
and at first I was a little nervous, like,
"okay, I'm gonna have to watch everything I say and be really careful around him"
but he's just a regular guy like us!
I decided to come on this trip because I wanted to feel like I was making a difference.
Personally, like, I couldn't even imagine losing everything I had in just a moment
so I wanted to come and just do whatever I could, just to help out.
One of the real pleasures is to see some of the homeowners
who have had their homes rehabilitated by Geneseo students
and community members coming back and expressing
not only their gratitude for the work that was done
but also their huge pleasure in dealing with Geneseo students.
The last time I came I worked pretty much in the same house the whole time
and the woman came almost every day and it was really nice to talk with her.
This is really kind of a great moment for Geneseo,
very far out of our usual sphere of influence
but it's great that our students are making a very favorable impact
on the community and on all of the people with whom they deal.
In this new setting they become even more impressive as human beings
who really care about helping others.
It feels good to be part of the effort
to get people back in their homes, back where they belong.
It's good to be with these people, everyone here.
It's good to be with them.
We had a call from Livingston County
and Tom Matthews called and said,
"We want to come help."
And he's been here 16 times,
we have others that had been here on the first trip,
y'all come up here?
All these people come almost every time
at least once a year
and again, we can't thank you enough from the Mississippi Gulf Coast,
Harrison County and the city of Biloxi
and now most of the work has been done here in the city of Biloxi, and we just can't thank you enough
and God has blessed us with you over and over again.
This tree is purchased by Harrison County
and this beautiful plaque that will be here
the stone is from Livingston County
that y'all brought down here.
We appreciate the work that you've done, the recovery is ongoing,
but we're coming back and we can do it with help from people like you.
Thank you so much for coming, and...
you wanna watch us plant the tree now?
Thank you. God bless you.
My name is Daisy Guyton
and I live in Biloxi, Mississippi...
I have had many, many volunteers come into my home
and I wouldn't be in my home today if it wasn't for the volunteers.
I think I was probably one of the first ones to get back in my home after Katrina,
and I am enjoying it
and I want to say again, thank you, whoever you are, wherever you might be
if you came to my home to volunteer, I appreciate it.