Harvey Help
On January 24th of this year Andrea Kolar (known as Andy) was given the keys to a brand-new mobile home in Seadrift. Included with the keys were a beautiful Bible and a “Paid in Full” certificate. All of the above was generously provided by Samaritan’s Purse, a nonprofit disaster relief organization headed by Franklin Graham. Andrea response was “It’s exciting to be in a place that doesn’t leak and has central heat and air.” She says this because she had lived in her damaged mobile home for a year after Hurricane Harvey. Andrea, we the community of Seadrift are excited for you! Thank you, Samaritan’s Purse!                -Tanya DeForest

Samaritan’s Purse is still on the ground providing physical and spiritual aid to affected families one year after Hurricane Harvey destroyed more than 12,000 homes in southeast Texas. Today, January 24, 2019, we celebrate Andrea Kolar returning home after Samaritan’s Purse helped her recover.

INITIAL RESPONSE:

Samaritan’s Purse deployed its entire fleet of Disaster Relief Units to Texas in response to Hurricane Harvey’s landfall—five response locations were established to help Texas families recover from the storm.

In the initial response, Samaritan’s Purse mobilized more than 11,000 volunteers from all over the country to help some 3,000 families with emergency repairs, debris removal, and mud-outs of homes with severe flood damage.

SECOND PHASE:

Samaritan’s Purse continues to help Texas families recover from Hurricane Harvey with home rebuild and repair teams based in Rockport and Pearland.

Over the course of 2-3 years, Samaritan’s Purse, working alongside partner organizations, will rebuild or repair more than 450 homes for families who are unable to do the work on their own—widows, elderly, uninsured, and others with special needs.

Our goal is to see up to 1,000 families get back into their homes. This will be accomplished through physical assistance (rebuild and repair), providing building materials and a manufactured home replacement.

Samaritan’s Purse is also working to help more than 150 churches with needed repairs.

THE HOMEOWNER:

Andrea Kolar is a 56-year-old who has been a large part of the Seadrift community for 33 years—serving as a custodian at the local post office. During her time there, she befriended an elderly gentleman and would frequently drive him to appointments and assist him with general tasks. Over the subsequent years, Andrea would become more and more of a caregiver for this man who had been predeceased by his wife and children.
When he passed away, Andrea discovered that he had left his Estate to her—including five lots in town, the manufactured home and a few personal belongings. Andrea has lived in the manufactured home for ten years and for the past four years has also taken in a young single mother and her three children.

Hurricane Harvey’s strong winds  ripped the roof off of Andrea’s home and filled the interior with water. With nowhere else to go, Andrea has still been living in the home despite the presence of mold and several pieces of the roof still missing.

Because of our generous donors, Samaritan’s Purse is able to provide a new replacement mobile home for Andrea, along with an initial furniture package, to assist in her recovery.

Seadrift’s Chamber of Commerce is going “gang busters” with twenty-eight new members to tackle the new year. The newly elected president, Cindy Alford, and the Chamber are ready to go! Their bucket list includes:

1. Complete restoration of Seadrift’s Visitor/Museum Center
2.Repairing Seadrift’s SportsPlex
3. A new sign for the Chamber on Hwy 185

Go, Chamber, Go!

By the way, the Chamber will be hosting the 2019 Shrimpfest June 7 & 8. There will be lots of new activities as well as “bringing back the old.”

Winter Lingers On The Island

Greetings from the island everyone. I hope that all of you are doing well and adjusting to this back and forth weather that we have been experiencing. My island clothing has gone from shorts and a T-shirt for several days, and then bundled up in sweats and a jacket for the next week. It has been from one extreme to the next this winter with our weather. Come on Spring!

And speaking of Spring, I’ll soon start getting my tomato seeds going for my Spring and into Summer crop. Over the years I’ve dwindled down the number of tomato plants that I’ll get started from seed, so that I can focus and better tend to those that I do have. I enjoy trying a few different varieties and maybe one new one each year. Unfortunately, once again, the seaweed did not wash up on the beach as it used to in years past, so I won’t be able to compost any for my garden fertilizer. I enjoy seeing those that are getting into gardening for the first time, and the enthusiasm that they have. My friend, Leroy Smith, just started last year with his raised beds in town, and is already doing a wonderful job.

My chickens finally finished with their molting and are back to laying nice large brown eggs. Yay! The guineas have not started yet, but I think they will when the weather starts staying warm. Every Fall the chickens molt, dropping a lot of their feathers, in order to grow new ones and get ready for the cold winter temps. They stop laying when they do this so that all of their energy can be directed to growing those new feathers. Out of my 15 Red and Black Star hens, I’m getting 10-12 eggs a day now, so I’m happy with that.

With all the rain that we have been having lately, the chicken pen started becoming a terrible yucky mess, transferring that into the nests and all over the eggs. I don’t mind the eggs being a little dirty, and I normally don’t wash them, because doing so removes a protective membrane over the shell that allows them to store longer and stay fresher over time. But when the eggs are filthy to a certain point, then they need to be washed. I was finally able to go in and bought a bale of hay at Melstan’s, and spread it out all over the chicken pen ground, and that has helped a lot. It’s like having an island farm out here, but I love having chickens and the fresh eggs that they provide.

I rarely get sick out here, and I contribute that to not being around a lot of people that are sick. Of course for the past several months I have been spending time with Mom at the nursing home, so I am around people more so than normal, and I must have picked up a bug somehow, because I can’t seem to shake a cold and congestion and yuckiness that I have. I’m popping Sudafed and drinking Theraflu and NyQuil like nobody’s business, hoping to get rid of this mess. And these drastic temperature changes are not helping.

My island life continues on out here, some days better than others, but I continue to have no regrets about my choice 13 years ago to become a full time island resident. I enjoy living beyond the sidewalks, and for me the positives far outweigh the negatives. I thank God everyday for the opportunity and strength and perseverance to live such a life. And thank all of you for being a part of this journey.

That’s it from the island for now, everyone take care and have a great day.