Bass Initiates Aid Project in Peterborough, N.H., for Collins, Miss.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 – Two weeks after New Hampshire Rep. Charles Bass began a project to establish an aid relationship between his home town of Peterborough, N.H., and the small town of Collins, Miss., the effort has extended to include eight other New England communities and raised more than $20,000.
“It keeps the charity that we need to provide to these people alive longer than it might,” Bass said Thursday. “Katrina and Rita will fade away after a while because there will be new issues, but this is not going to be that because it’s about Peterborough and what Peterborough can do for Collins.”
Bass said he hopes the project, which is called “The Monadnock Express,” will raise $100,000 by Oct. 30.
Collins, a town of about 3,000 people with an annual average income of $22,000, was left scrambling to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina struck the area, destroying the town’s only grocery store, damaging homes, devastating the resident’s crops and leaving a large quantity of trees and other debris scattered throughout town.
Collins Mayor V.O. Smith said he is excited that towns in New Hampshire are assisting.
“We just appreciate the communities in other states thinking about these small towns,” Smith said. “The large towns get identified and they kind of leave us out.”
Gretchen Judd, the project’s organizer from Peterborough, said other New Hampshire communities such as Antrim, Bennington, Dublin, Francestown, Greenfield, Hancock, Sharon and Temple are also actively participating in The Monadnock Express.
The aid to Collins also has expanded to included assistance for other surrounding communities in Mississippi’s Covington County.
“It’s important that everyone, if they feel they want to be a part of this, that they be a part of it,” Judd said. “My heart goes out to them. I want to help them in any way I can, whether it’s giving them a smile, a hand shake, a hug or a five dollar bill. I want to be there for them.”
On Wednesday, Sept . 21, after overcoming the difficult task of finding a ride from the airport in Jackson, Miss., some 90 miles from Collins, Monadnock Express volunteers Liz Verney of Hancock, N.H., and Michelle Carter of Peterborough, N.H., arrived in Collins to meet Smith and otherresidents and assess the town’s needs.
“There were piles and piles of debris alongside the roads,” Carter said. “There are no working traffic lights in town. They look like tin cans. We saw several large, large trees that were still lying on top of homes.”
She and Verney distributed $500 in Wal-Mart gift certificates to Collins residents during their trip, Carter said. She added that they tried to offer Smith $500 cash because he was using his own cell phone and other resources for official business since the hurricane struck.
Smith politely refused the personal cash assistance because he said he expected to be reimbursed later, Carter said, adding that the money was then donated to a local church that was helping feed local relief volunteers.
“It’s a very modest town,” Carter said. “The people that we met are extraordinary Americans. They are helping each other; they are taking friends in that had major damage to their homes.”
“It was a charming, middle-class southern town with southern hospitality abounding from all of the people we met,” Verney said Wednesday. “It had been dealt a tough blow by wind.”
Carter said Collins is not in need of water or clothing, but instead needs capital assistance to fund repairs and to purchase food.
“It’s so specific to each person,” Verney said. “Somebody might need a tarp, someone else may need a piece of plywood and someone else might need ten.”
The group plans to end its fundraising events Oct . 30 with a celebration in Peterborough. Bass said he hopes to bring Smith and his wife to New Hampshire for the event, adding that it will be the first time Smith has ever been in an airplane.
More information about fundraising events can be found on local town websites or the Peterborough Chamber of Commerce website at http://www.peterboroughchamber.com .
Mississippi Rep. Chip Pickering, a Republican,, who recommended Collins to Rep. Bass, said he also appreciates the efforts of the Monadnock Express.
“Collins, Mississippi, is right down the road from where I grew up and is a wonderful example of small town America,” Pickering said in a statement to the Union Leader Thursday. “Mississippians are proud and resilient folks who don’t like to ask for help unless they really need it. But they also understand generosity and know how to help friends and neighbors, and when times are tough, receive help.”
Pickering added that “when we start getting back to normal, I hope we can have some visitors down from New Hampshire to sample the fried-chicken at the Main Street Café.”
