The Way to Get Things Done
Susanne Norgard, Executive Director, writes in the Ukiah Daily Journal about people and organizations improving lives in our community.
Many of us read or watch the news each day with a feeling of frustration and despair. Some days it seems that there are more problems than solutions. This is how Frank Fanto, a Mendocino general contractor, felt when he watched a news re-broadcast one year after Hurricane Katrina. He saw how people continued to struggle and then resolved, “The way to get things done is just to do it.” Frank recently returned from his third trip to the
Susanne Norgard, Executive Director, writes in the Ukiah Daily Journal about people and organizations improving lives in our community.
Many of us read or watch the news each day with a feeling of frustration and despair. Some days it seems that there are more problems than solutions. This is how Frank Fanto, a Mendocino general contractor, felt when he watched a news re-broadcast one year after Hurricane Katrina. He saw how people continued to struggle and then resolved, “The way to get things done is just to do it.”
Frank recently returned from his third trip to the
Last year he made a similar trip with high school students who worked on a Habitat for Humanity project in the town of
Some of the volunteers worked at the animal control facility. Frank explained, “Because they have a no kill policy, the animal control agencies are still inundated with animals.” Other projects included housing renovation, re-building a park, and food preparation at a kitchen in St. Bernard’s parish. “The youth sign-up for different reasons, the primary being they wanted to help people,” Frank says. “The volunteer experience is more meaningful when they actually make a connection with the people they are helping. It takes the abstract and makes it concrete.”
For the Mendocino kids, just being in a city like
While Frank does not minimize the work done by the volunteers, his reward is seeing how much the kids get out of the trip. “It’s hard to keep track of 13 kids who are working at different jobs throughout the city, but it is rewarding to see the kids grow through the experience. Some of the kids who went last year as seniors said it was one of the better things they did in high school.” Frank’s daughter, who is a senior this year, has gone both years. He says, “It pleases me that she wants to do it because it can be very tiring and dirty work.”
In terms of progress in the clean-up and revitalization of the city, Frank notes that things are slowly stabilizing – the trash on the street is gone and the trailers have to be gone by June of this year – but the people are still struggling. “I don’t think it will ever be the same,” he told me. “In the poorer areas, one in three houses is still boarded up and the population that is left is mostly elderly. There has been a change in the entire social structure of the city.”
Frank notes that the volunteer phase of the re-building efforts may be drawing to a close. “Volunteers are great for demolition, but they are getting to the stage that stuff needs to be done by skilled contractors. Few volunteers really have the training to hang sheetrock or do plumbing.” For this reason, he is considering returning to the
The Community Foundation makes grants that encourage a spirit of volunteerism and “giving back.” If you want to find out more, visit our website at www.communityfound.org.
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