Katrina made for several unlikely combinations such as a Baptist Church in Texas pairing up with the Rainbow Family to feed the people of Bay-Waveland for months after the storm. For most of the locals it was a broadening experience that also illustrated that the desire to help cut across every imaginable social strata.
Having lived the Katrina experience I’m not surprised to see Fox news analyst Ellen Ratner pair up with Marsha Barbour to help the hard hit community of DeLisle. Robin Fitzgerald at the Sun Herald sets up the story:
Ellen Ratner’s generosity will help pay for a community center in the Pass Christian/DeLisle area and a transitional workforce center in Gulfport to house homeless men and provide them job training.
Ratner is Washington bureau chief of the Talk Radio News Service and a political commentator for FOX News Channel, among other roles as a news analyst and correspondent.
The center, slated to open on the 4th anniversary of Katrina traces it origins to a chance meeting with a local attorney:
Ratner said any credit for the start of both projects goes back to Nicks, whom she met on an airplane after Katrina. Nicks, her children and husband Myrick Nicks, principal of Gautier High, were seeking refuge in Washington, D.C., after Katrina. The family lives in Gulfport.
Ratner said she was moved by compassion as Nicks told her of the struggles of Pass Christian/DeLisle residents who survived Katrina but lost all they had. Continue reading “Unlikely Heros and Honorary Slabbers: DeLisle’s Marsha Barbour Community Center”