This was another wonderful season for HolEx and an incredible one for me to experience...

This was another wonderful season for HolEx and an incredible one for me to experience. I was lucky enough to go to the Gulf and Tim has already described so much of what we saw. I'll add a few of my thoughts. As a volunteer, one of our goals was to find gifts to use in our client "raffles." We talked ahead of time and agreed that portable electronics that run on batteries would be the best since many people still don't have electricity. We set out for Sam's Club in New Orleans thinking of radios, walkmen, iPods and the like. We quickly found out that there were none to be had. They had been bought out weeks ago by the storm's survivors.

At Xavier Prep High School, I spoke to an older woman who was a resident of New Orleans. She told me that when she heard Katrina was coming she packed up some things and went to stay with cousins in Lake Charles. Her home was destroyed, but she was safe. Then came Rita, which devastated Lake Charles. She got out safely again and went to stay with family in Illinois. When we spoke, she had moved back to N.O. about 3 weeks earlier. She was put up in a hotel with many of the other displaced persons. She had desperately been seeking an apartment, but the waiting lists were literally 800 people long! She started to smile a bit and told me, "Hey, this will be the only time in my life I get to stay in a hotel in the French Quarter." Her resiliency was amazing. Turns out she was a former teacher at the school and her daughter teaches at one of the other Catholic schools in the area. She was just happy the school would be re-opening in the next few days.

There was 5-year-old David who sang with us at the Joe Henry show. He must have asked me 5 times if he could go sit on Santa's lap again and get another present. I got my Frosty initiation and survived so many children clinging to my legs that I literally could not move - thank you elves for helping me. The eerie nighttime ride along the gulf from Pass Christian, MS to the NCBC in Gulfport. And the military personnel...so young (or maybe I am just so old). They told me about hoping to "get home to the folks in Tennessee" or "seeing my newborn baby after Christmas." They work long hard days trying to rebuild the area and really needed the party we provided. They were wonderful. And I will forever be left with the sight of the last soldier marching out of the auditorium, doing his drills with his unit and carrying the microwave oven he won in our raffle on his shoulder the whole time. Priceless.

There was so much more, but I'll shut up now and leave room for everyone else. Thanks to all.

LYNNE BROZA