Cover Story
Jennifer Armand, executive director of Bayou Community Foundation, addresses those in attendance at the Abraham and Robin Parfait home in Dulac during a home dedication. The ceremony was held recently to celebrate the completion of the first two homes built in the bayou community of Dulac for victims of Hurricane Ida.
Bayou Community Foundation celebrates the completion of the first two homes built for Hurricane Ida victims in Dulac Story by Janet Marcel ~ Photos by Lawrence Chatagnier Jennifer Armand, executive director of Bayou Community Foundation (BCF), welcomed members of BCF, Greater New Orleans Foundation, and Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS), state and parish leaders, diocesan representatives, nonprofit partners, and local residents to a dedication ceremony held recently to celebrate the completion of the first two homes built in the bayou community of Dulac for victims of Hurricane Ida. This project was made possible through an $850,000 grant from Bayou Community Foundation’s Bayou Recovery Fund for Hurricane Ida Relief and MDS. Funding for the grant was provided by gifts from individual and corporate donors, $300,000 from the Governor’s Hurricane Ida Relief and Recovery Fund, and a $300,000 matching grant from Greater New Orleans Foundation’s Hurricane Ida Disaster Response & Restoration Fund. 24 • Bayou Catholic • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • June 2022
Armand thanked the many volunteers and generous donors from throughout the state and country who made this project possible. “This is such a tremendous accomplishment in our Hurricane Ida recovery efforts. This gives us hope and shows us the heart of the people here. We are so blessed to have the Mennonites working here with us.” Within weeks of the storm, Armand told those present, it became clear that housing was the most critical need for recovery, requiring demolition and new home construction for residents with little means to rebuild on their own. “We knew the restoration of the community and the people depended on it. That is why we were so grateful when, in October 2021, volunteers from the Pennsylvania-based nonprofit Mennonite Disaster Service Storm Aid visited Father Antonio Maria Speedy, pastor of Holy Family Church parish in Grand Caillou,” says Armand. “It was then
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