The Biloxi Beacon

[klassylady25]

He reminds me of Uncle Remus!  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Remus 

I loved the stories and read them to my babies. 

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG97/remus/tar-baby.html

[kiska]

I love Uncle Remus. In fact Br'er Rabbit comes to visit me every now and then. Also it was a Walt Disney movie, Song of the South.

[glennab]

Good morning volunteers

Since I'm home waiting for someone to come and repair the air conditioner, I thought I'd give you the last of my entries in the journal of the Biloxi trip.

August 26:

"Jan and I checked out of the hotel and joined Chris, Angie and Val for breakfast."

(This isn't in the journal, but I wanted to note that Jan Neil is the best roomie one could ask for.  A lovely lady, to say the least!)

"Dave had to ship all the equipment home, so he, Chris, Rusty and Mike took off for the local Office Depot.

"The rest of us met them there, and our farewells, hugs, tears, photo ops, shifting of luggage and passengers for the New Orleans trip were conducted in the Office Depot parking lot.  A woman who was parked near the vans jumped into her car and took off with an offended look back at us -- apparently concerned about all the suspicious activity in a nearly empty parking lot on Sunday morning.

"It hurt to say goodbye to the team.  I told them they're forever my family.

"Dave told me I was much quieter than he'd expected -- based on my constant forum posts.  (Dave, how do you think I get all this material for my blathering?  Gotta listen to what's going on around me!  Besides, someone has to be the "straight guy" when surrounded by comedians.)

"Val paid me a compliment that will stay between us, but it was one of the dearest things anyone's said to me, especially such a self-contained, self-confident young woman.  Val, it meant more to me than you'll ever know.

"While Val drove home and the rest of the team left together for the birthday gala, Lauren and I also headed for New Orleans to drop off one of the vans and get to the airport.

"Along I-10 we stopped at was was called a 'rest stop.'  I've certainly never seen anything comparable in Florida.  It looked like a lovely southern brick home surrounded by well-tended flowers and trees.  Inside were two cheerful, cordial elderly ladies (good grief, there ARE actually people older than I am!).  The rest stop was more like a Welcome Center, with free coffee, maps, brochures and a guest book.  So wonderfully genteel and southern.

"As befitted the wrap-up of the trip, we got off at the wrong exit (my bad!), got lost in New Orleans (signage is minimal) and had to stop twice for directions. I guess you could call it the 'OMG, we're lost in New Orleans; are we going to make it to the airport?' route.

"Lauren dropped me off at the airport, since our "scenic" route had put me too close to my departure time to drop off the van with her.

"I still find going through security eerie and intimidating after all the years of flying without those safeguards.  I found my gate, wrote in my journal, people-watched, boarded my plane and was back in Tampa in no time.

"Great to be home, but nothing seems real.  I've never actually been part of a group of people on a "mission," where there had to be coordination, cooperation and hard, if rewarding work.  I highly recommend it.

"Most of my volunteer efforts have been solitary, and the years of trying to rescue cats got me mostly grief (rather, notoriety, a ton of negative press, a house full of cats, and a mangled finger -- I'd do it again, but that's often the price one pays in trying to be a decent human being. To quote my beloved, who often also pays for my attempts, "No good deed goes unpunished!"  Sometimes I wonder... but as he also says 'One does what one has to does!').

"OPR in general gave me my first feeling of camaraderie for a common cause, and the trip cemented my bond to the Biloxi team and all of the OPR volunteers.

"I'm glad I am an oldster with these memories, because I feel I have the wisdom to appreciate even more who we are and the value of our gift to the Katrina survivors and anyone else who suffers the loss of their history due to disaster.  (I'm glad I kept the journal so when my memory fails me [probably tomorrow], I can go back and read and re-experience our adventure."

One last comment, and I'll end this tome and get back to my restoration.

I don't want to embarrass Dave (oh, hell, why not -- he did, after all suggest strangling me with my tape measure!), but he is extraordinary to have made good on his impulse to use his skills (and eventually ours) to help the people who faced Katrina.  Now that I know the work involved in a copy run, I can't imagine the first trip: a small group of people: Dave, Becky, Mike and some of their work associates, learning as they went; and, I gather, doing most of the retsoration work on the spot   (If I have this history wrong, forgive.  But I think I'm close.)

Dave, Angela, Becky, Mike, John and Chris are the foundation of what I think is to be a long-standing, ever-growing world-wide family that is going to make a profound difference in the lives of more people than we can imagine.

All you'd have to do is see the delight on the face of ONE person who was told that their precious photos could be fixed to understand what a wonderful endeavor we have.  We may not be first-responders, but wherever we fit in the overall scheme, we are making a positive difference.  Now that I've seen that effect first-hand, I'm in OPR for the rest of my life.

In my book (journal?), admin, the people who make the copy runs, and all of you who work so diligently to give people back part of their lives are  blessed to have the talent and the determination to make a positive impact on the world.

I truly love all of you,

Bless

Glenna

[sanbie]

I must admit when reading your final input I was saddened when I came to the end...I have truely loved reading all the news and updates as to what went on in Biloxi and I am going to miss not coming in to find the next installment!!
Thank you so much for taking the time to share all your thoughts and writings with us all Glenna..

Sanbie

[Hannie]

Glenna, I'm not going to read your final journal entry yet, instead I'm saving it for tomorrow (s.t. to look forward to!)
A big thank you in advance!  :)

Hannie

[Tess (Tassie D)]

That was wonderful Glenna but sad for it to be the last one. It's amazing what compassion, determination and a great idea can do to ease the suffering of disaster victims. :up:

[OPRAng]

The very first trip "we" were barely OPR. It was Dave and Becky on a project. They packed up computers, borrowed copystands (not the ones that made it on this recent trip), printers and paper, and sleeping bags and drove to Pass Christian. They didn't really know where they would stay, if anyone would be interested in the restorations, or whether or not the idea would work. Originally they weren't even planning to mail the photos back to the families--they thought they would do the restorations on site and hand them back at the end of the week. Needless to say within the first day, the realized that this was much larger than they had dreamed.

If you go to our homepage (www.OperationPhotoRescue.com)--there might be an easier way to get there from here, but I'm not sure...Anyway, if you go to the homepage, you can click on the blog that Dave wrote. During that first trip Dave wrote about an entry every day with updates on how it was all going.

They worked out of the Pass Christian library, and slept on the floor at night--I believe Dave said he slept in the reference section, but I could be wrong...Now we have restored countless photos for countless families, we are a permanent charity, and we have over 1200 volunteers like you all around the world pulling together for one common purpose--to preserve a cherised memory.

Insurance doesn't replace memories, but we do.

Check out those first blog entries and you can see how we have grown.

Thanks everyone!!!

Angela

[Mhayes]

Angela,

To see how far OPR has come since Dave and Becky did their first copy run is inspiring! How wonderful it is too that you are involved and care as deeply about the organization.

Margie

[GP]

Hi Glenna,
thank you so much for your reports! Sorry, I'm coming into this thread so late in the game, I had problems with my internet connection and could not post. But now it seems to be repaired ( knock on wood  :up: )
It seems like a great adventure and lasting memories to be part of collecting the pictures and meeting some of the people we are actually working for.

Gerlinde  :loveit:

[Hannie]

Thank you Glenna...  :loveit:

Hannie