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The Biloxi Beacon

Started by glennab, August 24, 2007, 11:18:49 AM

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sanbie

Oh I agree..it was like I was there as I was reading that Glenna..my imagination soared!! Thank you so much for sharing that with us...See I would be no good there...because if someone broke down I would take ALL their photos!!

Well done all of you!

Sanbie
paintshop pro X1

Tess (Tassie D)

Same here Sanbie. Great story Glenna. I can just imagine how tense it would be trying to get photos out without damaging them any more than they already are.
Tess Cameron
Distribution Coordinator
[email protected]

Ratz

Welcome home Glenna,
and thankyou for being our official reporter on the scene,you kept us all well informed on the magic as it happened.
You guys must all be exhausted!
Looking forward to fixing some of the latest offerings.
God bless all the Biloxi team :loveit:

rockthumper

Thank you for your report Glenna, it gave me an insight into the practical side of gathering the restoration candidates that I did not previously have.
Congratulations on the work you and the rest of the team have done.  :up:

Ausimax



"Home is the hunter, home from the hill, and Glenna home with her quill" ( apologies to RLS for that bit of plagiarism).

Sounds like a very busy and successful trip, and hopefully everyone enjoyed themselves, I would like to commend Glenna for her informative and humorous reports that helped those of us who weren't there gain some sense of the procedure and the emotion it engenders.

Thanks to all who participated and worked so hard on behalf of us all, we salute you. :wnw:


Max
Wisdom is having a well considered opinion .... and being smart enough to keep it to yourself!     MJS

"Life" is what happens while you are planning other things!

glennab

Hi volunteers!

Thanks so much for the kind words.  Max, I love your quote.

Margie, to answer your question about being nervous about prying out photos, I honestly only got rattled when one of the frame braces went flying and I didn't know where it went or whether anyone was hit by it (fortunately not, though Val gave me a lot of grief about the danger of "flying shards of metal").  Interestingly, I didn't feel nervous about anything we did -- I think we were so focused on doing the best we could for the people who came in that we were pretty much outside ourselves, if that makes sense.

One of the most poignant moments was when a young woman sat down in front of me with a folded newspaper holding several curled up photos.  She set the newspaper down, looked at me, and said "excuse me, I have to leave."  She came back a few minutes later, apologetic that she'd broken down (can you imagine?) and told me that this was the first time she'd looked at the photos in two years.  The wonderful experience of that encounter was that we were able to salvage every one of her photos.

The only discomfort was trying to decide how to react.  Do you go around the table and hug someone?  Will that make it worse?  I usually just held their hand or arm and told them how sorry I was for their loss.  It was definitely an "in the moment" decision as to what to say and do.  I told them it was a gift to us and a joy to be able to give something back to them.

One more incredible story, and I need to head for my bed.  A fifty-ish woman came in with loose sheets from an album -- her wedding photos.  She'd taken everything with her, but somehow had missed the wedding album.  Several days later a neighbor found the book on a bare slab several houses away and could read the faint writing on the album cover.  She recognized the owner's name and returned the treasure to her. We'll be able to restore all of them.

It was so special to see eyes light up when we were able to tell the owners that photos they thought were beyond saving would be easy to fix.

I think what will follow me as long as I live is the positive atmosphere in that room despite the loss and sorrow.  People are truly amazing!

As witness all of you, who will be making good on my promise that they'd get their photos back looking so good that they won't believe it!

Hugs; sweet dreams!

Glenna
What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal. ~Albert Pine

(Photoshop CS5 /Mac Pro)

Hannie

Hi Glenna,

I love to read your reports, it feels like I was there myself!
Thank you for all the good work you (and the others!) did and thank you for your reports.  :hug:

Hannie

Hannie Scheltema
Distribution Coordinator
[email protected]

Lorraine

Hi Glenna,

Thanks for posting so much detail as to how the organization works.  It's given me much more insight into the entire procedure.

Lorraine

John

Thanks Glenna!  I am disappointed that I couldn't make the trip, but am glad that you've provided your eyes and ears to share the experience.

glennab

#39
Hi John

I'm sorry you didn't make it too.  Having you there and meeting our web guru and resident creative run amok would have been the icing on the cake. I don't know if you've been on any of the copy runs, but they're incredible almost beyond description.  I'm saving my "mad money" to be able to go on any others that we make.  We still have much to do just in the Delta area.

By the way, I believe you asked about the shark building that you and your beloved had visited before the storm.  We think it was the derelict within view of the hotel.  The colors were right, but the shark was gone, as was the bottom level of the building.  I was amazed that it was still standing. Jan got photos.  I hope we can determine a way to post a compilation of all the photos taken on this trip.  Being in the company of so many photographers was the best.  There's a wealth of visual history of the trip.

I'm not quite ready to get into the devastation still in the area -- it's makes me very emotional; but one little irony is that my bank is Regions, and I was concerned that if I needed extra cash I'd want to be able to find a branch there.  As it turns out, about two miles directly down the beach on the way to the library there was a Regions sign on the ground beside which was a neat pile of cinder blocks in a small rectangle about 2 or 3 feet high. (Sort of like a very short chimney) That was it. Very representative of much of what we witnessed.  And this is after two years!  It boggles the mind.

Glenna

An aside to the volunteers who have posted here.  In a way I feel very selfish in my feelings about this trip.  We went to help people in Biloxi, but I (and I'm sure the rest of the team) feel as if I were given such a gift in the experience of this run. I expected to go back to the hotel depressed and demoralized after seeing and hearing what I did.  But being able to do what we could for these wonderful people was nothing but positive.  We were exhausted every day, but the consensus was that we couldn't wait to get back and start another.  If my journal and ramblings are giving you a picture of what we experienced, that's a gift for me as well.  Your support and good wishes mean more than even the wordmeister in me can properly express.

What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal. ~Albert Pine

(Photoshop CS5 /Mac Pro)

kiska

I can provide a gallery at pbase to get the Biloxi pics in one place. Just don't know how to gather them for me to upload there. They would need to be smallish, say 6-8" at 72 for the longest dimension.
kiska
Photoshop 2021, MacPro

Dave

I'll write more about the trip soon, but just wanted to point you all in this direction to see some photos that volunteer Val Horvath shot during the Buloxi run: http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=D9&Dato=20070827&Kategori=NEWS&Lopenr=708270802&Ref=PH

Dave
Dave Ellis
OPR Founder
[email protected]

cmpentecost

I am finally home after a very long day yesterday.  Just like when I flew down to New Orleans, where my first plane was late, causing me to miss my connecting flight, only to arrive in N.O. much later, WITHOUT my luggage.  My return trip was about the same.  I did make it home last night, at 12:30 a.m (about an hour and a half late), and once again without my luggage.  It was a wonderful but exhausting trip, and with my late arrival last night, I'm functioning in zombie mode right now.   :D

I'll post some photos when I can, but in the meantime, will be working diligently to get some new photos posted to my gallery. 

Christine

Hannie

Sounds like almost everything that could go wrong did!  Poor Christine!  It is such a drag to miss your connecting flight, especially when you are already tired out and then no luggage on top of it!
Hope you'll have a good rest and that your luggage shows up soon!

Dave, thank you for sharing the photo link, it was fun to look at those.  Looks like a nice bunch of people working very hard!

Hannie 
Hannie Scheltema
Distribution Coordinator
[email protected]

glennab

Hi Chris

I can't believe the airline gods caused you additional grief!  At least you're home, so you aren't without your own possessions as you were in Biloxi.  I'm just glad you're safely back in Bozeman!  Get some rest. You've earned it.

I got an e-mail from my son this morning that was touching and funny at the same time.  I e-mailed all my kids the article from Biloxi that had my name misspelled several times.  Kevin wrote the newspaper a quite irate e-mail to let them know that the name is Boyette, not Voyette.  He signed his name and followed it with "her son!"  Heavens!  When I saw the goof I just figured...call me whatever... no big deal.  My child was incensed!  Who-da guessed!  Love him for being that protective of my "good" name!

By the way, I'm going to be a bit late returning my restoration.  Have been busy, so I'm behind.

One of the joys of the trip was meeting you, my friend.

Many hugs!

Glenna
What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal. ~Albert Pine

(Photoshop CS5 /Mac Pro)