Dear friend,

Yesterday, Inspiritus Disaster Relief Volunteer, Philip DeRitis, was awarded the Gold President’s Volunteer Service Lifetime Achievement Award by AmeriCorps CEO Michael D. Smith. This award is in recognition of more than 650 hours of volunteer service Phil has given to his community through his work with Inspiritus.

Established in 2003, the President’s Volunteer Service Award recognizes the important role of volunteers in America's strength and national identity. This award honors individuals whose service positively impacts communities and inspires those around them to take action, too.

The PVSA has continued under each administration, honoring the volunteers who are using their time and talents to solve some of the toughest challenges facing our nation.

Below Video: Michael Hudak WINK News

Philip DeRitis is one of these individuals.

Phil served all 650+ hours in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. As a storm survivor himself, his motivation to help bring his fellow community members home was personal.

Phil was teaching at a local tennis club when it was forced to close after being destroyed by Hurricane Ian. He lost his home, car and job to the storm. Rather than leave the area, he chose to volunteer with Inspiritus to help others impacted by the devastation.

Phil has inspired so many people that he has been named lead volunteer, and provides training to other volunteers to effectively muck and gut, provide mold sanitation services and complete small home repairs. In addition to his on-the-ground support, he has assisted with administrative tasks and tool and inventory management.

***Phil DeRitis receives President’s Volunteer Service Award. Click image above to watch now***.

“Anyone who works with Philip walks away with a new skill and a profound sense of hope,” said AmeriCorps CEO Michael D. Smith. “Not only has he become the go-to volunteer to solve problems, he also embodies the spirit of service communities like Fort Myers’ needs to move forward after disasters. On behalf of AmeriCorps, thank you for volunteering your time and showing that service is a uniting force.”

Even in the aftermath, Phil said his heart remained steadfast and strong as ever.

"It takes faith. To me, it's just about doing the right thing...and having general care and concern for your neighbors."

Inspiritus Disaster Relief teams remain on the ground in Fort Myers, FL empowering storm survivors on their road to recovery by providing free social & emotional support, debris removal, muck & gut, chainsaw, mold sanitation and heavy equipment services.

If you would like to volunteer and join Phil, and the rest of our team on the ground, click here.

If you would like to make a monetary contribution to support our relief efforts, visit www.weinspirit.org/donate

Sincerely,

Virginia Spencer
Chief Development Officer
Inspiritus

Dear Friend,

I write to you to share reflections from my recent trip to the Long-Term Recovery Disaster Zones in both Waverly, Tennessee and Mayfield, Kentucky where Inspiritus teams are still actively helping survivors recover more than a year after the storms.

How is the recovery going? I love that question. It indicates that people realize that people and communities are still hurting following the devastating effects of a storm.

*The Tennessean reported*: The floods were trigged by up to 17 inches of rain falling in just one day. The rain shattered the state record for daily rainfall and sent rivers and creeks surging over their boundaries. According to local officials, a total of 20 people were killed during Middle Tennessee's severe storms and extreme flash floods.

It has been well over a year since the massive flood in Waverly brought a wall of water down Main Street that crashed into Diane’s cute little house. Her son was home that night when the trestle gave way sending a tidal wave hurtling through the town of Waverly, Tennessee, a quaint community one hour west of Nashville. Her son quickly ran upstairs with the dogs and cats and climbed out onto the roof of the house as rescue personnel, helicopters, and boats made their way to their street. They were preparing to rescue him when the young man saw their 87 year-old next-door neighbor through the window standing in his house in chest deep water. The young man on the roof pointed the rescuers to help the man in the house instead.

More than a year later, these two neighbors are still traumatized by the events of that night. Every time it rains, Diane finds herself glued to weather news, wondering, and worrying for her safety and that of her dogs. She wonders if she should leave and head for higher ground. Despite the house being ready for move-in, the next-door neighbor has been unable to return. She wonders if he also still hears the screams of the young mother in the house behind them crying out to anyone who could help, “Please save my baby! Please! Save my baby!!!”

During the Long-Term Recovery, which in many cases can take years, Inspiritus provides free construction management services to homeowners who cannot afford to repair their own home properly. Working with volunteers and skilled trades, Inspiritus helps the homeowner manage the construction project until completion, making sure that even the smallest of details, such as that every nail hole is filled, and the paint job is done to the satisfaction of the homeowner. Along the way, Inspiritus staff and volunteers also support the homeowner and their own healing process.

When I inquired this week, neighbors one street over from Diane said that they still aren’t doing well a year and a half after the flood. Margie and Gene still ponder nearly drowning that night. Gene, age 80, was trapped inside the house. Margie, age 68, attempted to go for help. She recounted the miracle of not drowning in her own back yard.

AFTER THE STORM:

*Personal belongings from Margie and Gene’s home (photographed July 2021). Everything had to go...it was heartbreaking*

AFTER INSPIRITUS CAME IN AND HELPED:

*Margie and Gene’s street after Inspiritus helped them return their home to its former glory (photographed December 2022)*

As if that wasn’t enough, it was the events following the flood that brought them to their proverbial knees. The day after the storm, their home was burglarized by looters and on the third day they received notification from their insurance company that their homeowners’ policy had been canceled. However, they literally kept their heads down, working daily scrubbing and re-scrubbing their floors to get the mud out of their house. At some point, once the adrenaline had passed, Margie recalled falling into despair as she wondered what their fate would be. She remembers days where she wasn’t able to get out of bed due to waves of depression.

Somehow, she learned about Inspiritus and mustered the energy to call. Ever since that day, Inspiritus has been on the job, committed to returning her home to its former glory. With their small life savings, she and her husband invested funding into stabilizing the foundation of their house. However, that left no money for the huge repairs that remained. Then they met RJ and Robert. RJ and Robert are the dynamic duo of Inspiritus construction managers assigned to the home. They are helping Margie and Gene manage the renovation project with funds raised by Inspiritus. It’s a historic home that has been in Margie’s family since it was built in 1913. First, the home had to be mucked, gutted, and sanitized to prevent the mold.

*Left to Right - RJ (Inspiritus), Margie & Gene (homeowners), Robert, Kevin & John Moeller (Inspiritus)*

Teams of professionals and staff have been in the house every week since. The day I was there, volunteers were painting the inside of the house from top to bottom. Seeing the progress brought joy to Margie’s face, and I could hear hope in her voice. A year and a half after the storm, she is allowing herself to begin to look forward to moving back in. While they lost everything in the flood, including many family heirlooms and sentimental items, they celebrate that at least they have a mattress and box spring, and a small plastic table and chairs from Walmart that will give them a place to enjoy meals.

Margie admits that she didn’t realize how damaged SHE was in the storm. There continue to be days that she is caught off guard by a range of emotions that arise within her when she realizes what she has lost. She described a recent experience where she was ready to pull a casserole out of the oven, and in the heat of the moment, realized she didn’t even have any potholders. They were another casualty of the flood. She found herself enraged that at this stage in her life, she didn’t even own potholders. That’s not to mention all the other things that have been lost, like trips and vacations that she and Gene were looking forward to taking in retirement with their nest egg, which has been completely wiped out.

Despite all of that, she finds hope beginning to dwell inside her again. She put it this way to me, “Inspiritus is not merely repairing our house, they are helping us heal our lives. We are grateful to know that they won’t leave until we are whole.” I’m glad she sees it that way because that is our aim. After all, the Inspiritus mission is to guide individuals and families on a path from surviving to thriving. Inspiritus empowers those whose lives have been disrupted to realize their strength and resilience and accompanies them all along the way.

However, I am stunned by how hard this work is and how long it takes. Saturday, December 10th marked the one-year anniversary of the winter tornado that struck Mayfield, Kentucky. I have been there several times over the last year to support our team and check on the community’s progress. This week, I was stunned by how much work still remains. Entire neighborhoods remain vacant ghost towns. Full city blocks of homes have been scraped, the debris removed, and all that remains are concrete slabs and house numbers out front. It’s reminiscent of a moonscape. However, when I talk to residents, the Inspiritus team, and those who have survived, I get a completely different picture. They smile with hope and say all kinds of progress is being made. Homes are being repaired, people are returning to the neighborhood, and the city is drawing up a master plan for a revitalized city.

*A tribute to the children, women and men who perished on the night of the deadly storm. Behind the sign once stood a stately, yet modern courthouse. It was completely destroyed in the storm.*

An entire neighborhood once filled the frame of this photo. Today, nothing remains but concrete slabs, and memories. The good news is that city is committed to rebuilding. In the foreground, there is a memorial garden. Those baby trees will someday grow up to provide shade to the grandchildren and great grandchildren of the storm. Nothing about this storm will ever be a distant memory.

Clarissa was one particular resident that Inspiritus has helped. She recounted to me how she was a renter when the tornado hit, and on the day after the storm, her landlord informed her that he did not have homeowners’ insurance. It was the second devastating blow in two days. Not only was the home she lived in severely damaged, but there was no hope of it being repaired. However, over the course of the year, she was able to secure a title to the property from the struggling homeowner. Friends, neighbors, and members of the faith community have rallied around her, and Inspiritus just completed the final repairs to her house this week. While it’s been a struggle, she and her grandson are finally happily living in the house that she says, “love built.”