Katrrina Help from Round Lake

Trustee Sherry Perkowitz got the village involved in helping a dislocated familly of the Katrina tradegdy. A good number of people showed up to volunteer. there is a good article along with some pictures in todays Daily Herald. The text of the article is below.

Special thanks to all the volunteers who came and who gave of thier time to this worthwhile project and a special thanks to Trustee Perkowitz for being so involved and leading the charge.
A new home in new state

By Jason King
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Monday, September 19, 2005

A handful of volunteers scampered about the house Sunday morning, busily working on to-do lists laid out on clipboards on the back deck.

When their work is finished, Round Lake will welcome a New Orleans family that was displaced by Hurricane Katrina to the home.

But on Sunday, trustee Sherry Perkowitz was busy keeping the volunteers on track and trying to make sure they had the supplies needed to do the job they were assigned.

“We brought the family out here Friday night. I told them it’ll be completely different by the next time they see it,” she said, before dashing off to buy light bulbs and cleaning supplies.

At a meeting two weeks ago, Perkowitz got the village board talking about using the vacant home to help a family in need.

The village has owned the home for a couple of years and rented it out, but it had been sitting vacant for some time when Perkowitz floated the idea to her fellow board members.

The storm hit the Gulf Coast August 29 east of New Orleans, creating massive damage and causing levees that protect the city to break, setting off a flood that covered 80 percent of the city.

Evacuees now are living with family or friends or, in some cases, strangers across the county. Perkowitz said the family that will move into the Round Lake home — a couple with six children — did not lose their home, but had to leave the Gulf area regardless.

“There’s no schools, no city services,” she said. “They needed a place for their kids to go to school. They’re trying to minimize the disruption for their kids.”

The village’s building department gave Perkowitz a list of items that needed to be addressed before it issued an occupancy permit for the home.

The biggest task facing volunteers was updating the out-of-date electrical wiring. Rich Kenyon, of A/C Electric, and Marty Reading, of Reading Electric, Inc., were busy working on that issue Sunday.

Kenyon was accompanied by his daughter, Christine.

“This was completely her idea. She’s been begging me to come here and help since she heard about it,” Kenyon said. “I was supposed to be out of town, but I changed some plans.”

Christine Kenyon said she wanted to help out as much as she could.

“It’s a good cause,” she said. “I thought it would be a lot of fun to help.”