When Helen Hampton came into our office months ago, she didn’t have a house, she was wearing a back brace, and she had trouble breathing.  Because she didn’t have a house and we don’t do new construction, we weren’t able to help her at the time. 

Ms. Helen and her husband are both carpenters and had their own company before the storm - until she was injured and was not able to work anymore. Somehow Ms. Helen and her husband, LC, built themselves a brand new house on their lot. Unfortunately, Ms. Helen was still wearing a back brace, still had trouble breathing and was not doing too well health wise. 

On the day that St. Bernard Project went to inspect the finished house - to determine if we were going to be able to work on it - Ms. Hampton had just turned away a drywall crew because she couldn’t afford to have them do the work. A few minutes later, SBP Construction Manager Christina walked in to tell her that we were thinking of working on her house, and that she was there to inspect it.  Ms. Hampton says that God sent Christina to her house that day, because she has no idea how she would have gotten the rest of the house done otherwise.

She and her husband are raising their grandson, who is always excited to come home to a houseful of volunteers to play with every day. And Ms. Helen?  These days, she doesn’t wear her back brace anymore and the only time she’s had trouble breathing is while she was into the second hour of walking with SBP’s Walking Club!  She attributes this to all the love, hard work and dedication that volunteers have put into her house.