Members of a Seekonk church display their dedication to helping those in need by enduring seemingly endless hours aboard a bus bound for the Crescent City.

01:00 AM EST on Monday, February 20, 2006

BY KAREN A. DAVIS
Journal Staff Writer

No one ever promised it would be easy.

In fact, members of the Seekonk Congregational Church, United Church of Christ team came to realize that just getting to Louisiana to provide hurricane relief would be a formidable challenge.

A busload of volunteers left New England early Saturday morning bound for New Orleans, as part of a United Church of Christ mission to offer help to those whose houses had been ravaged or destroyed by Hurricane Katrina six months ago.

But after two full days on the bus, with stops every two to four hours, members of the Camp Katrina team had yet to get even a glimpse of New Orleans.

The 33 church volunteers spent about 14 hours on the road Saturday, then spent the night sleeping in sleeping bags and on air mattresses on the basement floor of a sister church in Richmond, Va.

Yesterday morning, the volunteers were roused at 5 a.m. to pack up their gear, reboard the bus and be back on the road by 6.

With not a doughnut shop in sight, those for whom coffee had become a daily ritual would have to wait two hours.

Grey Goose Lines bus driver Jim Giblin estimated that yesterday's bus trip would cover about 1,000 miles and take at least 16 hours, depending on the number and length of stops.

The journey would include a stop in Aiken, S.C., to pick up a second driver.

Volunteers, ranging in age from 11 to 81, tried to wile away the hours by reading, playing video games, watching DVDs of the movie Fever Pitch, Sweet Home Alabama and a recap of the 2004 World Series, listening to CDs or sleeping.

The morning ride included a spiritual reflection and words of encouragement from church leaders.

By afternoon, rest-stop parking lots became the place for impromptu rounds of Hacky Sack.

The trip gave three longtime acquaintances from Seekonk a chance to do something they had never done before: share a sandwich and talk.

Eugene Buker, 81, Robert "Putt-Putt" Putney, 71, and Dave Medeiros, 64, have much in common. All are members of the church and have granddaughters among the eight teenagers who joined the trip as a way to perform required community service before their confirmation in June.

In fact, because Buker's daughter is married to Putney's son, the two share a common granddaughter who is making the trip, Brynne Putney, 14, of Seekonk. Buker also has a daughter and granddaughter participating in the relief effort -- Leslie Cote and her daughter Hollyn Cote, 14, of Barrington.

Medeiros said he has known Putney and Buker for 40 years -- their children grew up and hung out together -- but "we never really sat down and had lunch."

Buker said one of the reasons he decided to make the trip was because he survived the Hurricane of 1938. He said he was 13 years old and living in East Providence when the hurricane hit Rhode Island, flooding downtown Providence and causing the water to rise to the steps of the family's Bullock Point home. He recalled saving his pet chicken by bringing it inside and stashing it in a dresser drawer.

"It's a token," Buker said of what he'll be able to do to help New Orleans residents rebuild. "But I want to do my part and help a little bit."

Putney also remembers the '38 Hurricane, which struck when he was 4.

Putney said he was riveted by the destruction and aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

"I watched every piece of news about it.I couldn't get enough," said Putney, who last visited Baton Rouge, La., in 2001 to play softball in the Senior Olympics. "I want to see it with my own eyes."

"I know we can't do a lot, but we can help somebody -- one or two families, maybe," Putney said.

Medeiros, a semiretired construction engineer, said he believes his granddaughter, Aneesa Bey, 14, and other teenage volunteers will be affected by their New Orleans experience: "They'll never forget it."

The mission trip is a week-long intergenerational experience designed to help parishioners from other United Church of Christ congregations in New Orleans. The volunteers, which include four licensed carpenters, an architect, two men with construction experience, two families spanning three generations, a German exchange student and the youths from the 2006 confirmation class, will stay at a church in River Ridge, a West Bank suburb of New Orleans.

While they don't know what their daily assignments will be, they have been asked to repair one family's roof and to help tear down walls that have been irreparably damaged, according to the Rev. H. Daehler Hayes, who is one of the trip's coordinators and an active member of the church.

Leslie Cote said she felt strongly that her daughter, Hollyn, should make the trip, even though her school (Wheeler School, in Providence) is not on vacation this week, and school officials frowned upon her absence.

"When I found out my dad was going, I really felt like this was meant to be," Hollyn Cote said. "I know that this is going to be a meaningful experience."

That is, if they ever get there.

The frustration was evident from cell-phone conversations:

"No, we're not there yet."

"We won't get there until midnight, 1 o'clock."

Since they would be getting to Louisiana so late, Hayes told the volunteers late last night that they could sleep late and report to their work sites at 11 a.m., instead of 7 or 8 a.m. Today, the Camp Katrina team will find out where they will be stationed and what work they will be doing.

kdavis@projo.com / (401) 277-7353

EXTRA: See more photos of the church group's activities, by Journal photographer Kris Craig, and hear the first of a daily audio report from Journal writer Karen Davis, by noon today, at:

http://projo.com