AGA TOPICS Newsletter

Third Annual National Community Service Project Spawns Another Event June 25

By: Past AGA National President Virginia Robinson, CGFM, CPA, DABFA

When I heard about the plans for the Third Annual AGA Habitat Project, I was both curious and excited. I had not traveled to New Orleans since attending the last PDC held there. Like many others, I watched the news reports and TV specials covering the status of existing conditions and descriptions of what remains to be done for some current and former residents. While we saw some of the devastation from Hurricane Katrina in the ride from the airport, it paled in comparison to what we saw in parts of the Ninth Ward. En route to our first work site we began to see the empty ravaged homes and empty lots where houses once existed. Seeing is believing.

The 13 volunteers—Past AGA National President Jeffrey S. Hart, CGFM, CFE, Denver; Past AGA National Treasurer Evelyn Brown, CGFM, Washington, D.C.; Senior Vice President-at-Large Karl Boettcher, MBA, CGFM, Washington, D.C.; Doreen Shute, CGFM, CPA, Montgomery/Prince Georges County; Melinda Barbish, Richmond; Janice Wieberg, CGFM, and Thomas Wieberg, Mid-Missouri; Yong-He Bae, Erin Koksal and Thanh Le, Denver; Howard Tamborella, CGFM, and Marcie Tureaud, New Orleans; and myself—exhibited true grit and the real AGA community service spirit all week long. What an experience!

On our first day we worked to repair an existing structure that had all manner of damage and destruction. We donned our gloves and began work—sweeping debris, wiping down walls, erecting shelves, caulking windows, applying ‘mud’ and cleaning up. During the remaining days, we progressed to such tasks as sawing and hanging siding with tools that had previously been foreign to most of us. Our painting skills were honed too. In fact, we formed competitive teams to accelerate progress and to inject a bit of fun as well. The competition served us well because we, along with a wonderful family from Denver—a retired district attorney; his wife, also an attorney; their son, an attorney too and daughter-in-law, a scientist—made major progress in helping the Habitat staff put some of the finishing touches on two houses in just five days. Not sure that we feel that we’re ready to build homes on our own yet, but wow, we learned a lot.

The work—fantastic exercise—used muscles (especially for the overhead painting) that some of us had forgotten that we possessed. It’s good that I felt exhausted after a hard day’s work because I definitely needed some means of assuaging the fleeting guilt I felt for the way I ate those scrumptious lunches purveyed by PNP Jullin Renthrope, CGFM, CPA, CFE, CGFO, and others in the New Orleans Chapter. I say fleeting guilt because at the end of the day when we were able to enjoy repasts such as the one hosted by PNP Clyde McShan, CGFM, my thoughts and taste buds enveloped sheer delectation as I devoured the crawfish and five different kinds of cheesecake. In fact, Clyde told me he had an allowance for each of us of 1 ½ pounds of steamed potatoes, three ears of corn on the cob, five pounds of crawfish and unlimited dessert.

There’s no question that we plan to heed Jeff Hart and Karl Boettcher’s call to stay an extra day after the PDC to work for Habitat again. The New Orleans Chapter, definitely among the crème de la crème in AGA, has said they will be prepared for us. Since AGA is about learning, helping others when we can, and having a bit of fun too, will you commit now to join us on June 25, if you haven’t already done so. Hope we’ll see hundreds of you there.