List below are the press releases to date:

From the Casper Wyoming Star Tribune January 18, 2006

Nothing better to do ... than help

By JANET MONTGOMERY
Special to the Star-Tribune

PINEDALE -- Silas Davidson was looking for something to do before starting school after the new year. He had worked for the U.S. Forest Service and tried to join a sailing crew on a trip around the Bahamas.

With nothing better to do, the Pinedale student, 22, joined his brother, Crosby Davidson, and North Carolina friend Jack Rockers, both 25, and decided to head right into the core of "too much to do" by volunteering with disaster relief and cleanup efforts from the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina’s inland attack.

“For me anyway, I had some time, and I knew everybody was throwing money, and that was good … I didn’t have any money, but I did have time," Crosby said.  Davidson and Crosby packed just one bag each.

The three hooked up with Disaster Corps, in part because it lacked a religious affiliation while providing a much-needed service.  “It was more hands on,” Silas said  “Almost everyone we talked to before going down said they needed money, not workers,” Silas said, “and it was almost the opposite when we got down there.”

In November, Silas, Crosby and Jack reached Bay St. Louis, Miss.

They arrived at around 9 p.m., and all the town lights were out and a curfew meant everyone was in bed. In the morning, they got a tour.

“It was a lot different than I expected,” Silas said. Television images of floods were replaced with real-world images of the wind's wrath.

“From the coast up about six blocks … there was just nothing there,” he said. “Everything was just blown in.”

“It just blew us away," Crosby said. "We had no idea what we were getting into. … It was pretty incredible to see how much devastation there was."

To their surprise, they also ran into somewhat of a neighbor in Bay St. Louis. When they arrived at the site, they spotted a Wyoming license plate, county 22. The volunteer coordinator for Disaster Corps, Margaret Balliet, lived just up the road from them in Jackson. Now the Wyomingites were taking up residence together in a tent city that filled a softball park shared with other relief organizations.

The men walked into camp wearing backpacks that caught Margaret’s eye. She commented on how she missed backpacks. They knew she was the one from their home state.

Wrecked homes

In Bay St. Louis, debris filled the landscape from the beach and inland for blocks. Trees were knocked over, their roots ripped from the earth. Some standing trees cradled cars in their branches. Houses were shattered.

“Houses were just picked up off their foundations and set back down,” Silas said.

The brothers spent most of their time in these homes, gutting the structures in an effort to rid them of mold. “Everything got piled on the floor,” Silas said.

The Army Corps of Engineers tagged houses that had been flooded but were still structurally sound. It fell to the Wyoming men to remove personal items, and then tear out anything that was wet and growing mold.

Debris that was once belongings or valuables was destroyed.

“A lot of people would come, and they would look at their home for a day and just be so … They couldn’t deal with throwing away all their life like that, so they would tell the volunteer groups to just throw everything away,” Silas said. “They didn’t want to be there to see it … so you’re kind of rooting through these families’ lives and photo albums and everything, and throwing it all away.”

Amid the devastation, humor was their escape.

In an attempt to cut away a tree, Silas laughed at the idea of using the small chain saws to chop at the gigantic limbs.

“They were just tiny little homeowner chainsaws,” Crosby said. “It was definitely a challenge at times.”

The men often cut down trees right next to people’s homes.

“There would be just shells of houses left, and we’re lopping down big old trees around (them),” Crosby said. “It was scary most of the time. We didn’t have the right equipment … but somebody had to do it.”

Humor made the task easier.

Silas laughed at the photos that were taken as they posed in working situations for Margaret’s camera. Margaret boosted their spirits often.

“Margaret was just … she was just really able to make people laugh a lot, even the victims,” he said. “It was pretty hard not to laugh when she was around.”

The young volunteers also made fun of themselves, adopting a nickname that signified Silas' reasons for coming to the Gulf Coast in the first place.

“We went down there and kind of deemed ourselves ‘Team Nothing Better to Do,’ Cros, Jack and I, so we mentioned that once,” Silas said “Somehow, Margaret or somebody just jokingly started calling us ‘Team Hero’ and then we played it to the hilt, and definitely said it every chance we got.”

Frustration and a return

Some days, they’d get to the tent city feeling good, Crosby said. Other days, they'd wonder why they had helped someone who didn’t seem to need as much as someone else.

“There was a lot of frustration,” Crosby said.

“It kind of became a bit of a joke," Silas said. "A lot of the time you’re down there you don’t see anything being accomplished … so you end up standing around looking at something and not doing anything and then still calling yourself a volunteer and ‘Team Hero’ n so it kind of became a joke upon ourselves.”

But it wasn’t a joke for everyone.

Margaret penned a note to Silas and Crosby’s parents telling them just how knowledgeable and helpful the two brothers and their friend were in their volunteer efforts, as well as how they earned the title “Team Hero.”

“It was a very nice,” said Silas's mother, Dynell. “We were very proud of the boys going down there … That just made us pretty proud.”

After three weeks, the trio left, only to return weeks later to Bay St. Louis to see progress and once again lend a hand.

At first, Crosby said he had no desire to return. The need to help drew him back in.

“That last trip made me feel like I would definitely like to go back again.”

On the second journey, the brothers packed one bag together.

“(People) just have too much stuff,” Crosby said. “It was amazing to see people’s belongings sitting on the street ... It made me want to simplify the things I own and the life I lead.”

Looking back, Silas said: “We were able to do quite a bit of legitimate work that helped people out … Some of it, when you started to look back on it after we were gone, it seemed like there were definitely people down there who were … they weren’t quite as needy as some of the other people.”

But the crews did help many in need, targeting family homes and residents who didn’t have insurance to cover the damage.

After the New Year, Silas headed back to Pinedale, via Chicago, while Crosby went up north to Wisconsin with a different friend.

Silas said he’d like to go back to Mississippi again, just to see how it rebuilds itself, or perhaps as a volunteer again. He said he would return if he had the same situation -- nothing better to do.

Press of Atlantic City, January 09, 2006

Victims Still Need Support

HAMMONTON-More than four months after Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana and Mississippi residents are still desperate for help.

"The needs down here are unreal," said Kate Schaffer, a volunteer for North Carolina-based Disaster Corps. "They need water, they need warm clothing, they need coats. ... people are finally getting into their trailers and their campers, but there are no sheets and no blankets."

Founded by a survivor of Hurricane Floyd, Disaster Corps has set up home base in Bay St. Louis, Miss., next to former Hammonton resident C.C. White's trailer. Its volunteers fix homes, provide basic supplies and help people with the morass of paperwork getting federal assistance requires.

It's "just totally unreal. I mean, we're looking for water again," Schaffer said. "It's not okay down here. It's far from okay down here."

While the Red Cross and other relief organizations require lengthy training for volunteers, all you have to do to work with Disaster Corps is e-mail ahead and show up. Tents, showers, food and bathrooms are provided.

White also needs volunteers. She's looking for people to stock shelves and help remove disabled vehicles that still litter Bay St. Louis. Disaster Corps is seeking people to gut, clean, and help rebuild houses. People with carpentry, electrical or plumbing skills are especially needed.

Schaffer and others say the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Red Cross and other organizations aren't doing - or can't do - enough to help the state's struggling residents.

"A lot of them are living in FEMA trailers ... some are living in flooded houses," said Disaster Corps founder Stephanie Spencer, a Hurricane Floyd survivor. "SBA (Small Business Administration) loans aren't flowing down there. ... Four months in, almost five months in, the system should be working better."

Her volunteers - some of whom stay only for a weekend - are trying to plug the gap.

"The need is so great," she said. "No picture tells the story until you actually go there and see for yourself."

The city of Bay St. Louis has leased a ball field as a headquarters for its volunteers, who live in trailers and tents.

"We've got them coming in daily," Community and Economic Development Director Harold "Buz" Olsen said. "We welcome it."

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From WLOX-TV ABC13, Biloxi Mississippi

Disaster Volunteers Spend The Holiday Working

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Newspaper:  The Daily Southerner October 11, 2005 Tarboro, N.C.

News

Sportsmen donate coolers to new Disaster Corps

By CALVIN ADKINS, STAFF WRITER

Stephanie Spencer and her husband Jeff stack coolers in a building they are using to store goods that were donated to Disaster Corps by the Tarboro Association of Saltwater Sportsmen. Spencer is planning her fourth trip to the Gulf Coast soon. Photo/Calvin Adkins

Six years after receiving assistance from people all over the world to rebuild her flood-damaged home, Stephanie Spencer is returning the favor - plus more.

Spencer organized a non-profit organization designed to help victims of natural disasters. Today from 20 to 25 people including several in Edgecombe County are volunteering for the organization.

Spencer started Disaster Corps, a 501C(3) organization of Tarboro, several weeks after Hurricane Katrina (Aug. 29) left thousands of people homeless on the Gulf Coast. Less than a week after the disaster, Spencer organized a collection drive to assist the victims with nonperishable items. After gathering a truckload of goods, she carried them to Alabama. Spencer is the chairwoman of the organization.

Since her first trip to the Gulf Coast, Spencer returned twice and also received nonprofit status for her new organization. So far Disaster Corps has taken approximately 171,000 pounds of goods to the Gulf Coast, Spencer said.

Disaster Corps is currently operating in Bay St. Louis, Miss. Spencer opened a shelter there for volunteers to stay while they assist the new organization in its tasks. Volunteers can stay at a Disaster Corps site where food and shelter will be given to them. Volunteers do a variety of jobs from cleaning out homes to helping victims fill out paperwork.

Its mission it to provide physical and economic necessities to any victims of natural disasters to smaller areas that are sometime overlooked.

Spencer's home along with hundreds of others in Edgecombe County was devastated by Hurricane Floyd's floodwater in 1999. After receiving help, she vowed that she would one day repay the favor.

"While we were in the nation's spotlight a few times, we struggled for the daily needs to sustain life," said Spencer discussing her ordeal during the 1999 flood. "Never once during this ordeal did we meet anyone assisting that had been a survivor of a disaster - someone who knew how it was to deal with all the difficult decisions made daily by victims. We know how it is to struggle daily for food, water, ice, clothing, shelter." 

Spencer who owns a home-based accounting business was at her Tarboro home this week. Nevertheless she has spent countless hours on the phone talking to volunteers in Mississippi and to volunteers from all over the country. On Monday she was notified by a Disaster Corps volunteer who is in Mississippi that a man from California wanted to help.

The California man found out about the organization through the Internet. Since building a Web site (www.disastercorps.org) Spencer said they receive 6,000 to 11,000 hits per day.

Jeff Spencer, the chairwoman's husband, is also a volunteer. He has been to the Gulf Coast four times and has plans to go back, too.

"My wife talked about helping others since we lost everything that we had," said Jeff Spencer. "After Katrina we got a chance to do that. This has given us the opportunity to help. We are not doing it for the money. I spend enough of my own."

Disaster Corps does not receive any money from state or the federal government. It solicits funds from the private sector and businesses. It also relies on the private sector and business to help with the collection of goods.

Tarboro Association of Saltwater Sportsman (TASS) is one of the recent local organizations that has helped with the Disaster Corps collection drive. TASS wanted to help in a way that would identity it as a fisherman's organization. Instead of sending nonperishable items, cleaning supplies and food, TASS is collecting coolers for the victims. Almost 20 coolers have already been collected and some already been shipped to the Gulf Coast area by Disaster Corps.

"We thought this would be different," said President Jimmy Dupree. "We all had coolers laying around that we were not using. One way of getting rid of them was to give them to people who needed them. These people need our help."

The non-profit organization also needs help. Material is needed to help with the cleanup and monetary donations for shipping the items and other necessity.

Spencer is asking the community to look in their barns for old rakes, shovels or anything that can be used to help the cleanup and donate the items to her organization.

"We are going to be ready for whatever may come," Spencer said. "There are so many forgotten people down there. We are a small organization. We can't sit back and wait for the calvary to come in and save the day. If we work together we can conquer the task. We will be there at the time the disaster strikes and when they rebuild." 

Items donated to Disaster Corps are tax deductible.

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Newspaper:  The Daily Southerner   September 9, 2005  Tarboro, N.C.