Mississippi parishioners hit by hurricane help those in more need

Published: 2005-09-12

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (CNS) -- After Hurricane Katrina swept through the southern Mississippi town of Hattiesburg, its residents knew life was not going to be the same, but they also knew it could be a lot worse. Stories broadcast on television and told by friends and relatives of the wreckage that occurred in distant towns made many of the parishioners of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Hattiesburg grateful for what they had even with the inconvenience of felled trees and downed power lines. Even 11-year-old Kelsea Lewis from St. Thomas got the idea. Kelsea, who had been in school for two weeks before the school closed because of the hurricane, spent most of her day volunteering at the parish Sept. 8, handing out items to families in need. "We got really lucky," she told Catholic News Service, pointing out that the 24 trees that fell in her yard all landed parallel to the house. She also had a keen sense, for a middle-school student, that she might not always be so lucky. She saw her volunteering as "helping in a circular kind of way," hoping that someone would do the same for her if she needed it.

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