Locals have sent $700,000 in aid to Hurricane Katrina victims

What started out as an effort by one local businessman to help two Mississippi families has snowballed into a relief effort that has sent nearly $700,000 in cash and supplies to Hurricane Katrina victims.
“God put us in the right position at the right time,” said Jim Paul, director of the Ken-Tenn Relief Team, which has provided hurricane relief assistance to several Mississippi communities, and plans to continue doing so until there is no longer a need in that area.
The team has gotten quite a bit of press in recent weeks outside of Whitley County with Paul getting the chance to meet President George Bush and Mississippi Governor Haley Barber last week.
The Kentucky Post ran a piece on the group over the weekend, and Paul will be appearing on a WKYT show at 12:30 p.m. Friday, and on Al Smith’s Comment on Kentucky at 7:30 p.m. Friday on KET.
The organization has over 100 people that have volunteered, including more than 30 people from just Main Street Baptist Church in Williamsburg.
The group was originally called the Williamsburg-Tri-County Relief Team. After being told shortly before Christmas by Tennessee State Senator Tommy Kilby that if they changed name to include Tennessee, then he could help get more funding for the group, Paul said the name change was a no-brainer.
The group is presently in the process of getting its IRS certification as a non-profit group, which will make it eligible to receive state funding.
Until then, Paul said the group is struggling everyday to get funding, and doing charity work isn’t necessarily cheap.
Last week, Paul said the Ken-Tenn Relief Team shipped about 100 donated windows in a 26-foot truck to the warehouse, and another 26-foot truck took down a load of food, water, and cleaning supplies for a soup kitchen.
It cost $900 to rent the truck, and another $900 in gas for the two-round trips to Mississippi.
Paul said the donations have come through various churches, businesses, civic groups, and many private individuals throughout Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia, and have gone out to victims in six Mississippi towns serviced by the organization including to two major soup kitchens that feed about 6,000 people each day and 10 different distribution sites.
“The outpouring has been awesome, but we still continue to need support. Each week, there is a different need for things in different areas,” he noted.

Meeting the president
It was during last week’s trip that Paul had the chance to meet Bush and Barber after a speech in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.
“The president was giving a speech in a private catholic school down there, and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time,” Paul noted.
Thursday morning, Paul was in Mississippi, and got a phone call from a friend, who helps run a distribution center, saying he wouldn’t be at the warehouse that day because he was going to hear the president speak.
After he got done unloading the truck that morning, Paul said he went looking for his friend, and went into a room housing the White House press corps.
“I went over there and talked to those guys, and asked, ‘Who is the most likely person to speak to President Bush?’ A woman introduced me to a man, and he took all my information and a DVD I had made, and promised he would give it to President Bush,” Paul said. “Then I meandered out there where everybody else was trying to get in line to see the president, and to hear the speech. You had to be invited. I wasn’t invited, but I finally managed to find someone who OK’d it.”
After the speech, Paul introduced himself to Barber, and talked with him and his wife for several minutes about the relief teams efforts before he had the chance to meet Bush.
“He got up in front of me and shook my hand,” Paul said. “I said it is an honor to meet you sir. He said, ‘Where are you from son?’ I said, I’m from Kentucky. He said, ‘I appreciate you coming down here,'” Paul recalls.
“I said, ‘Thank you, but I would like to tell you about a bunch of other people I know that have been coming down here. Our group alone has brought over $700,000 to this area. We have been working with a lot of other groups. I would appreciate it if you would take time to look at our web-site.”
Because he was out of cards, Paul said he handed the president a piece of paper with the web-site address.
“He grabbed my hand, pulled me in, and embraced me,” Paul said. “He said, ‘Did you listen to my speech?’ I said, ‘Yes sir I did.’ He said, ‘Well, when I was talking about compassion, I was talking about you.’ I said, ‘Thank you very much, but it is not only me, but a bunch of other people I know.'”
Paul said he received an e-mail from Barber’s aide this weekend informing him that Barber had indeed looked at the web-site, and appreciated it.
Paul said the biggest reason he was happy to meet Bush is that he got to give him the CD, which not only tells about the organization, but details many of the problems that volunteers faced in Louisiana and Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina in dealing with the Red Cross, FEMA, and other bureaucratic agencies.
“Never did I dream I would actually get to hand the man the information myself that was a pinnacle goal for me from the very beginning, and I literally got to put it in his hands. What he does with it is beyond my control,” Paul said.

Staying until need is met
Paul said the Ken-Tenn Relief Team will be in Mississippi until there is no longer a need, and that he hopes to eventually take the organization nationally with response teams ready to go disaster sites to meet the specific needs of individuals and communities.
Paul said he hopes to have a response team ready to go by August, which will go to state and national disaster areas, such as those destroyed by hurricane, tornadoes, floods, or fires, and stay at those sites as long as there is still a need.
For more information on the organization contact Paul at 524-1988, or check the web-site at www.kentennreliefteam.org.