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A group of Catholics who tended to Schoharie County flood victims in 2011 have turned their attention to alleviating the deep-seated poverty they discovered there.

Resources in the 600-square-mile county are "limited," said Susan Hungershafer, a parishioner of Christ the King in Westmere, Albany, and a nurse who has volunteered for the past six months with a non-profit organization known as the Joshua Project.

She and another volunteer spend up to eight hours a week knocking on doors in trailer parks, farms and isolated towns to deliver food, water, supplies, furniture and religious materials. They educate residents on available resources and listen to people's stories.

Mrs. Hungershafer also checks people's vital signs, takes blood pressures and evaluates medications, and the duo takes an inventory of residents' spiritual health.

"They've really kind of given up," Mrs. Hungershafer said of residents dealing with not just the aftermath of storms, but desperate poverty. "They feel like there's no way out. They're just destined to rot there."

School districts and churches have referred the volunteers to about 32 families with a variety of issues, including cramped living spaces, untreated medical conditions or lack of electricity and heat.

Joshua House
Joshua Project board members are now seeking grants so they can purchase and renovate a flood-damaged home in Middleburgh to create a social service center they will call Joshua House. It will offer medical assistance, psychological evaluations and talk therapy from volunteer doctors, nurses and psychiatrists, as well as temporary housing and food.

The Joshua Project has "very much taken off," said volunteer Tom Hutton, a parishioner at St. Clare's Church in Colonie. "We want to get dirty. We don't want to just make phone calls. When you see you can bring resources in [and] you are helping people, it makes a difference."

Mr. Hutton, who is retired from IBM, helped rebuild 30 homes in Rotterdam Junction after the floods caused by Tropical Storms Irene and Lee; the effort was part of St. Clare's Route 5S Project. That project was spearheaded by Deacon Gary Riggi, who then focused on rebuilding efforts and delivering clean water to the southeastern Schoharie towns of Middleburgh, Fulton, Blenheim, Broome, Gilboa and Conesville in 2012 (see previous story at www.evangelist.org).

Deacon Riggi was transferred to Our Lady of the Valley parish in Middleburgh earlier this year. He has helped spearhead the Joshua Project with financial help from parishes and the Joshua Foundation, part of the ministry led by Rev. Joseph Girzone, a spiritual author and retired priest of the Albany Diocese (see www.joshuamountain.org).

Many hands
Dozens of Our Lady of the Valley parishioners who served more than 30,000 meals in the months after the tropical storms are now part of the Joshua Project. They bring baskets of supplies and household goods to those in need and work with Catholic Charities to locate furniture for them.

This summer, the volunteers worked with a youth commission and the Middleburgh Central School District to provide more than 1,800 lunches to hungry children and families. They'd like to do that again in Schoharie, Gilboa or Prattsville next year.

Middleburgh parishioners Linda Quinn and Patrick Costello, board members of the Joshua Project, told The Evangelist they'd like to eventually offer things like baby formula, warm clothing and classes on healthy eating.

"We're not trying to reinvent anything," said Mrs. Quinn, who runs a printing company and a high-tech mobile app company. "We're just trying to connect people with people."

Mrs. Hungershafer and Mr. Hutton said that contaminated well water is still a "horrific" problem in Schoharie County. But the issues get even more complicated.

The volunteers gave food, water, clothes, gas cards and Walmart gift cards to a father who was trying to move his five children out of a mobile home. They bought clothing for another man and his three children to wear to the funeral when his wife died. They helped a resident get a mattress and are evaluating a man with stomach pains who refuses to see a doctor.

Help from above
"There's always something else," Mrs. Hungershafer said. "There's always a story, always an illness. They need to know love. They need to know help.

"I want to restore their hope and let them know that God can take care of them," she said.

The majority of the residents are unaffiliated with any faith, but they often allow the volunteers to end the visits with a prayer. One woman took her rosary beads off a wall and started praying again.

"We talk to anybody," Mr. Hutton said. "Some of them are desperate. Most of them don't want to talk about their condition. I think they're embarrassed. They don't go and look for help; you have to uncover it and tell them where the resources are. In most of the places where we are, nobody else is."

The Joshua Project needs about $150,000 to $200,000 for the Joshua House and future endeavors, like rehabilitating storm-damaged houses and creating low-income housing options for trailer residents. Volunteers will be available to do presentations at churches and are seeking donations and volunteers.

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