"In the midst of ruin there is a gleam of light, and this light is City Park in New Orleans."

These words were penned by a Circuit City employee at Service International's biggest volunteer work day ever. Nearly 800 fellow CC employees were with him in New Orleans, ready to go to work in historic City Park, which suffered $48 million dollars in damage from Hurricane Katrina. On an early October day, these men and women descended on the park with rakes, shovels, wheelbarrows, paintbrushes, ready hands, and a determination to make this central city gem a little brighter.



So how do you effectively focus and direct 800 volunteers, match them with productive projects, and equip them with the proper tools? According to Darlene Blaum, Corporate Event Planner for Circuit City, the key is "organization."





"It was a real challenge to make sure everybody had something to do and no one was standing around," she reports. "But Service International was organized and had already planned out the work assignments and obtained the materials. They ran the entire program. It was amazing what we accomplished because of SI's incredible organizational skills."





Workers of all ages and abilities labored in places like Storyland, Botanical Gardens, Equestrian Farms, and Pelican Greenhouse. They painted fences, benches and gazebos; re-striped parking lots by hand; pulled weeds, planted flowers, and laid down mulch and pine straw (100 bales!); and spruced up the carousel, which is now open for the first time since Katrina.





Because of this amazing day of partnership between Circuit City and Service International, City Park is shining a little bit brighter for the families of New Orleans.



          
         Photos by Gregg Boyer.

It's been nearly nine years since the war ended, and smiles are beginning to return to the faces of Kosovo. But something has been missing from many of those smiles.

The war prevented Kosovars from receiving dental care. Now, many of them have bad teeth or no teeth at all. Moved with compassion, SI established a working dental clinic in 2001 in the city of Gjakova, bringing volunteer dentists and technicians from the US to provide dental care and teach good oral hygiene. Today, the clinic has seven chairs and it's manned by a local dentist, a hygienist, and a dental assistant, who partner with SI volunteer teams from the US. Since April 2007, when the clinic opened fulltime, SI has provided nearly $800,000 worth of free dental care!



   

This fall, SI's eleventh dental mission came to Gjakova to help, and for the first time, they made and fitted partials on-site to fill the gaps in so many smiles. In four days, this team gave free dental care totaling $164,125 to 259 patients!

One happy recipient of this dental mission is Mendim Nagavci, the brother of Pastor Driton, a fervent Christian who leads a small congregation of believers in Gjakova and helps SI as a translator. Before SI's visit, Mendim was missing seven front teeth, making it hard for him to eat and causing him great embarrassment.




SI's lab team made partials for him, and after they were fitted into his mouth and he looked in the mirror, he wept for joy. A few days later he was asked what his wife thought about his new smile. Mendim threw his hands into the air and beamed as he burst into Albanian. But this was one time when a translator wasn't needed. His new smile said it all.


You can be part of these teams who are bringing fresh hope to the post-war lives of the people of Kosovo. Call us at 636.532.9008 or send us an e-mail at info@serviceinternational.org.


see schedule for trips to Kosovo in 2008 >