BOCA GRANDE (Florida) BEACON March 3, 2007 Many Boca Grande residents have been involved in the continuing effort to help migrant workers affected by Hurricane Charley, and now have another chance to contribute. Sister Cathy Buster, vice president of Catholic Charities Housing Inc., will give a series of presentations to the Boca Grande community on March 17 and 18, in an appeal to help migrant workers in Arcadia impacted by Hurricane Charley.
“Shortly after Charley hit, the board decided our first housing community would be for the migrant workers who lost everything in the hurricane,” said Sister Buster. “We became aware of how great the loss was for them, and we thought it would be nice to focus on helping people who had lost so much,” she said.
The development, named Casa San Juan Bosco Inc., and headed by chairman of the board and Boca Grande resident Jack Martin, is being built in Arcadia to provide a healthy, sustainable, energy-efficient, and affordable rental housing community for farm workers who lost their homes during Charley’s devastation.
But Sister Buster said it will provide so much more than just a place to call home again. “The community center will offer many different classes, like GED and family education, there will be a financial management service, immigration counseling, and a day care center,” she said. Those services will provide workers with what Sister Buster hopes is “a better quality of life, self-development, and the ability to become citizens.”
Boca Grande residents have already been contributing financial support and time to the effort since Charley hit. “There’s been a long-term relationship between islanders and the work in Arcadia,” said Father Jerome Carosella of Our Lady of Mercy Church.
Immediately after Charley, Father Carosella appealed to islanders to help migrant workers, among the poorest and most deeply impacted by the storm.
“They gave (Father Carosella) a significant amount of money,” said Sister Buster, who added that “many islanders also served as volunteers, tutoring English to migrant worker’s children, and quite a few have helped out serving food and passing out clothing.” The Casa San Juan Bosco development includes plans for about 125 compact homes, a central Village Green, neighborhood parks, and a community center which will house meeting space, classrooms, and a library/computer room.
Though the board has already raised the nearly $20 million needed to build the homes and infrastructure through state and federal grants, they need more funds to complete the community center. “About $2 million is needed for the community center … without that funding, we won’t be able to proceed,” said Sister Buster. Sister Buster was invited by Father Carosella, and by Pastor Brightly from the United Methodist Church, to tell islanders about how the hurricane affected migrant workers, and what they can do to help out. “She is coming to address the community at large and speak about the need to fund the community center project,” said Father Carosella, noting that “Pastor Brightly was also very excited to invite her here.” “I’m a big fan of Sister Buster,” said Father Carosella. “We feel a real affinity for the migrant workers in Arcadia because of the long-term relationship we’ve established between them and this island,” he said. Sister Buster and Father Carosella said it is rewarding to be involved with this type of project, helping people in a community where “many families have been living with five to six other families in one trailer,” said Sister Buster. “It’s very exciting, and very rewarding, and I’m humbled to be part of it,” said Sister Buster. “Everyone is very, very excited about this opportunity to create a community center to give quality of life and self-sufficiency to these workers,” she said. |