August 29, 2005

Artist Bill Myers is here- a journey that began 4 years ago though none of us knew it at the time.

We are a group of people drawn together for many different reasons but with the goal to support our dear friend, Roberta, whose infectious vision for helping artists affected by Hurricane Katrina became our vision too. Please visit Shoofly Moonpie website to learn more about Roberta's vision and our projects.

Many many people have traveled from Lancaster County to the Gulf Coast to be involved in the rebuilding. I was sent there 2 1/2 weeks after the storm, to Ocean Springs, MS, when a plea from a national nonprofit came requesting a web designer and lifeguards. I was both and was sent with six other strangers into the what became a life-changing event.

My 10 days there were exhausting. Food was sometimes hard to come by, soup kitchens in churches, amazingly abundant food- where and how still a puzzle. when we slept it was on exercise mats at the YMCA in Ocean Springs. The Y made showers available to anyone 24/7 and everyone was dirty. I washed and dried loads and loads of towels, lifeguarded and created a web site so the rest of the world could help manage donations for what was really needed. Volunteers were spending valuable time sorting through parking lot loads of clothes, winter coats? Though there was not one leaf on a tree, it was 90°.

When I left, I need counseling. I felt guilty for leaving these sweet people there in the nothingness of chaos and loss. What good was I or anyone?

I met Roberta Little several years later and she was dreaming. She, a refugee, an artist, an activist wanted to make some difference in the lives of those artists she left behind. Shoofly Moonpie was born. I will let you read more of that endeavor elsewhere.

Artists. No home or studio. Some losing every image they ever made. Bill Myer is one such. He is here to share not his personal devastation but his art. He is here to help us, to contribute some small or huge or life changing way to the lives of children in our community. I hope he will write something too. I hope he finds the time to tell us all what he sees in us. csm