Many groups, individuals have been answering the call

By Stephanie V. Siek, Globe Staff  |  August 20, 2006

Throughout the western suburbs, municipalities and community groups responded to the suffering in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Here is a sampling of those efforts:

The Medfield girls' soccer team, coached by Bob Luttman, has a yearly tradition of community service. Last fall, the girls decided to reach out to the soccer fields of a community a thousand miles away.

The team, whose members are ages 12 and under, sent nearly two dozen soccer balls and water bottles to the Baton Rouge Soccer Association . The team also included handwritten letters and cards, though no one knew any of the recipients' names.

The balls and bottles ended up with Katrina refugees who had resettled in Baton Rouge. Kutay Mahoney , the Baton Rouge league administrator, said that the hurricane and the shower of donations in its aftermath changed the way her group thought about competition.

``We always thought, `Oh, this club, we gotta beat 'em,' or `That club, they're better than us, and we better work hard.' But one thing that came out of Katrina -- we realized that everybody's human," Mahoney said. ``We're human, they're human."

The 17-member Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries in Newton spearheaded an interfaith effort to ease the lives of hurricane evacuees.

The youth group at Eliot Church filled giant storage bins with items from resettled families' wish lists. Temple Emanuel worked with a Mattapan church to help a New Orleans family resettle and find jobs. Temple Shalom helped an evacuee who worshipped at Roxbury mosque Masjid Al Qura'n purchase a spring and summer wardrobe, and a computer.

Executive director Claire Kaschuk said the ministries group has turned its focus to helping refugees find permanent housing in New England. ``Our state has done a wonderful job, but still there're s gaps," Kaschuk said. ``And that's where the congregations are wonderful. They've really stepped up to the plate."

To help, call Kaschuk at 617-244-3650.

Myrtle Baptist Church , another Ministries member, organized several deliveries of food and clothing to hard-hit areas. The church continues to support four families and two individuals from New Orleans who found refuge in Newton. Myrtle is also trying to foster a ``sister-city" relationship with Picayune, Miss.

To help, call the Rev. Howard Haywood at 617-332-5870 .

When residents of Wayland decided they wanted to do something to help residents of Waveland, Miss., they weren't just interested in sending clothes or money. They wanted to build relationships. The result is Wayland to Waveland, a public-private partnership.

``We're one country, and they're neighbors," said steering committee cochairman Tom Fay. ``They're not down the road; they're about 1,500 miles away. But they're neighbors, and as neighbors we have to do the best we can to try to help fill part of their needs." .

The group has overseen numerous good works. The Wayland High football team worked with volunteers to pack enough household goods to furnish more than 100 FEMA trailers serving as temporary homes. The Wayland Angels Network assembled hundreds of holiday gift bags. Teenagers collected gently used prom dresses to send to students attending the Waveland-Bay St. Louis joint prom.

Three groups of Wayland residents have gone to Waveland to help rebuild, and two more trips are in the works.

On Columbus Day weekend, a group of high school students will head down to make repairs, and from Oct. 12 to 26 an adult group will join local builder Peter Brockman in erecting one house and making major repairs to at least two others.

Fay said that Waveland residents have told him that they're heartened that they have not been forgotten, particularly now that war and terror threats are grabbing the headlines.

``Aside from repairing things and building things," Fay said, ``the fact that people are able to come down and hear their stories and talk to them is just as valuable to them."

For more information, call Fay at 617-312-7573 or co chair Cindy Lombardo at 508-878-0808 , or visit www.waylandtowaveland.org.

The Plainville public school system might be a small district, with fewer than 1,000 students, but administrators, staff, parents, and students are trying to make a big impact on a school in Mississippi.

Superintendent Michael Malone has sent a third shipment of badly needed supplies to the Dexter School in Walthall County. The district has sent surplus computers, printers, and television sets, with more equipment due to be shipped out within a few weeks. The community raised a total of $7,000 to contribute to the school, some of which was used to buy playground equipment.

Natick resident Pat Lilja was teaching English in Japan when Katrina hit. When he returned, he wanted to do something more than write a check.

So, last May, he hopped on his bike and cycled more 400 miles across Louisiana's devastated coast. He donated much of the $2,000 he raised to the YMCA of Greater New Orleans , which is offering child care so that parents can rebuild their lives.

But while the ride is over, Lilja's mission is not. He knew it would not be when he pedaled on the first day of the trek through Holly Beach, a town nearly wiped off the map.

He is drumming up donations for Vermillion Parish Community of Care , an interfaith organization in nearby Abbeville that helps people replace furniture and other household items.

For more on Lilja's ride and on how to help, visit www.patlilja.net/PEPY.

Books and bookbags, a cook, an air conditioner, a construction manager, and leafy greens.

This seemingly eclectic mix has a somber thread tying it together: All the items are needed by groups on the Gulf Coast as they try to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina.

The list is part of a database created by the Citizen Action Team, a group of volunteers from Boston and more than 25 surrounding towns. Among them: Dover, Hopkinton, Maynard, Natick, Newton, Norfolk, Wellesley, and Weston.

Relief workers at more than 500 locations in Mississippi and Louisiana type in what they need, and the Citizens Action Team locates the items -- or in some cases people -- and sends them exactly where they were requested.

``We realized that there were all these pockets of shelters that people were ignoring or didn't know about," said Pamela Ruby Russell of Norfolk, one of the group's founders.

CAT, as the group calls itself, has shipped hundreds of pallets of goods worth perhaps a half-million dollars, said Terra Friedrichs, another founder. Russell fears people think Katrina relief is done, which is far from the case. ``This is not political. It's people who suffered a great loss, and they're not getting a voice. . . . It's sort of a forgotten issue."

To learn more about Citizens Action Team, visit www.citizenactionteam.org. To see a list of specific needs, visit dbase.citizenactionteam.org/conditions/list. Alexandra Perloe also contributed to this report.