Community Project:
PASCAGOULA CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

Christmas. What makes it feel more like a season than just a day off work? Family, friends and traditions all make it feel like Christmas, but it also needs to LOOK like Christmas. Lights, garland, Christmas trees and other decorations help instill the Holiday spirit in all who pass them. Unfortunately, many of the towns along the Gulf Coast saw all off their lamp post decorations, holiday lights and garlands used on municipal buildings and major thoroughfares destroyed in their warehouses by Katrina’s wind and saltwater.

Called the Flagship City, Pascagoula has a population of 27,000 and is located in Jackson County, Mississippi. The major employers in the area are the ship yards which produce Coast Guard and Navy ships. Nearly all of Pascagoula’s decorations were lost when the warehouse in which they were stored was swamped by Katrina’s storm surge.

Hope Has A Face Foundation located, purchased and donated pole mounted decorations, to help replace those destroyed by Katrina. These decorations arrived in time to be placed on the major thoroughfares of Hwy 90, Market and Ingalls before Christmas, 2006. A second donation of additional mounting hardware was made for 2007.

Hope Has A Face Foundation located some additional used decorations in Germantown, TN and Mississauga, Ontario Canada which those cities donated, and Hope Has A Face paid to transport and distribute to other Gulf Coast Cities which were ready for use by Christmas 2007.

---News Article: The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)--- Lighting Up Long Beach - Germantown Helps Out Victim of Katrina Friday, December 30, 2006, By Angela Buckley

(l to r) Debbie Dismukes of Hope Has a Face Foundation, Parks Superintendent Robert Childs, and Germantown Parks and Recreation Director Pam Beasley load holiday decorations at Germantown Public Services complex.

A truck full of decorations

GERMANTOWN -- Germantown's holiday spirit moved beyond its borders this month to brighten the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The city donated 70 retired holiday decorations to a town damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

"For many communities hit hard by Katrina, decorations weren't an option last year. When we heard the hurricane destroyed their decorations, we decided to help," said Germantown Parks and Recreation director Pam Beasley. "We received a letter from the mayor's office in Long Beach, asking if we could help. It was a request we could meet."

Long Beach, Miss., mayoral assistant Charlene Stogner penned the request. Her letter outlined the need: "The decorations for the city were stored in one of the municipal buildings that flooded last year we had no decorations. There isn't much city left, but it (decorations) would lift the spirits of citizens that live here, whether they live in a house or a FEMA trailer."

Germantown donated 45 wreaths and 25 framed silhouettes - featuring bells and candles - to the effort.

"These are pieces retired from our use, but with a little repair and relighting, these decorations will look good as new," Beasley said.

The group Hope Has A Face spearheaded the effort. Project Manager Debbie Dismukes looked over the stored decorations at Germantown's public services complex Saturday and brought a rental truck to pick up the goodies.

"These will look great and really brighten up the coast," Dismukes said. "This has been a fruitful project and we are pleasantly surprised by people across the country who wanted to be a part of it."

Nashville and Toronto are among cities donating decorations.

Dismukes delivered the decorations to Long Beach, where volunteers hung the decorations after repairs are completed. Dismukes said some of the decorations may be shared with Bay St. Louis and Pascagoula.