By Joyce Schubring
Editor
"I wouldn't consider it a 'normal' vacation but I'm very glad we did it," Jim Bath said of a recent trip his family took to storm-ravaged Louisiana.
"It was very worthwhile. For one, it was a great opportunity for us to help somebody. The other part was physically visiting New Orleans and getting a perspective on what it's really like."
What viewers saw on TV "pales in comparison to the amount of devastation and the scope. You get a real sense of what happened (in person) and what people are dealing with now. It's just incredible," Jim said.
After Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf, Jim and his wife, Teresa, searched for a way to help a family rebuild their lives. Part I of this series in the Nov. 23 issue recounted how the couple found an extended family — two adult sisters, their brother and their respective families — who had lost everything when the levee broke in New Orleans.
The Baths were grateful for a chance to make a difference in their lives. They contacted family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, and their children's school about the plight of the families and asked for donations of new or used toys, clothing, household items, school supplies and cash.
The couple was amazed by the unexpected, overwhelming response from the community. Thanks to the generosity of so many people, the Baths filled a 16-foot trailer with donations and hauled it to Baton Rouge, where they delivered the goods to the recipients: Paul and Jennifer Kavanaugh and Brian and Peggy Doherty and their children, and Kevin and Sara Richards.
The Baths, their son Ryan and daughter Rachel headed for Louisiana on Oct. 26.
Jim figures the trailer weighed more than the vehicle pulling it. "I'm guessing about 5,000 or 5,200 pounds," he said.
When they arrived in Baton Rouge 20 hours later, they met the families and heard their personal accounts of the aftermath of the hurricane. Their stories moved the Baths deeply.
"Now that we've completed the project I'm thankful it was their family (whom they helped)," Teresa said. "Their family is so much like our family. … This is what we would be like if it happened to us."
She said she was proud of Ryan and Rachel because "they communicated with these people on a level I don't always get to witness. They were expressive with them about who we are, and helped, and told them about the process. I think they connected in that way."
"Helping the families" was the best part of the experience, Ryan agreed, because "they're just like us." 
Ryan and the Dohertys' son Brennan hit it off as the two unpacked boxes of toys, sports equipment and items for Brennan's bedroom. Everyone was delighted when Brennan put on a Packer bomber jacket someone had donated and "wouldn't take it off. "He ran around the house" with it on, Ryan said.
 "He put that on and lit up like a Christmas tree. It was so joyful to see, not just for him and us, but also for his parents," Teresa added. 
"Rachel and Caroline (Kavanaugh) became instant friends; all they had to do was find a box of Polly Pockets," she laughed.
Paul Kavanaugh was the manager of a medical facility in New Orleans, but now the flooded building is unusable and most of the clients are gone — either moved or evacuated. He hoped to return to New Orleans to get the clinic up and running, but there was little housing available, Teresa said. The Kavanaughs were fortunate to find someone who was leaving the area and sublet his apartment for the next 10 months.
Even though they found an apartment in New Orleans, they are staying at Paul's mother's in Baton Rouge "at least through the holidays to keep Caroline in school," Teresa said. The schools in New Orleans haven't re-opened.
When the Dohertys looked for temporary housing in Baton Rouge, they found a two-bedroom apartment but couldn't afford the rent — $2,700 a month. "The price gouging in Baton Rouge is phenomenal," Teresa said. "It makes you sick, it makes you angry." Finally, they located a small, 3-bedroom rental property.  They needed a third bedroom because Jennifer's mother, who also has been displaced, now lives with them and Brennan.
When the order was issued to evacuate New Orleans, Baton Rouge experienced a huge influx of families like the Kavanaughs and Dohertys. A week after Katrina, a teaching staff was assembled and one of the city's two school buildings standing empty opened to the displaced children. Peggy is employed there as a second-grade teacher.
"… Peggy only has one student (out of 21) who has been there the whole time because the kids are in and out," Teresa said. "They'll come in for a week or so, then mom and dad will find another place. It's very hard to maintain normalcy as far as classroom activities and supplies. The first two weeks they used what they had; by the second and third weeks donations started to come in from different organizations and schools around the nation."
Jim's sister and brother-in-law in Mukwongeo "put out the word that a fellow teacher was in need and these teachers just inundated us with books, teaching supplies and teacher materials, etc. Peggy had an entire pile of boxes just for teaching school. She was very grateful," Teresa said.   
Brian Doherty still has a job but his office building remains closed so he's working from home. "The funny part was they had all desktop computers so he had to go and get laptops so everybody could continue to work and now they're debating whether to open the office back up or not," Jim said.
"The problem with a lot of people is they have jobs but no one has an office," Teresa said.
After eight weeks as guests at someone else's house, newlyweds Kevin and Sara Richards found an upstairs apartment in New Orleans that escaped the flooding.
Kevin works for a liquor distributor and travels quite a bit so Sara waited to open all the boxes of donated items until Kevin was home. "When they finally did open the boxes, it was like a bridal shower. She'd say, 'Oh, look, honey, a muffin pan, an oven mitt.' They were just thrilled," Teresa reported.
While the Baths were in Baton Rouge, they had dinner with Jennifer's entire family. Jim was struck by the fact that "their lives are totally consumed with how are they going to recover and what they know about the plight of their neighbors. That's their conversations."
Teresa agreed. "It's an all-consuming, full-time job to be able to juggle what the priorities are, what they need to do next, what's most important, and how they're going to survive from day to day in making these decisions because they aren't going to be home any time soon."
The storm and its aftermath have impacted their children as well. "They're typical kids," Teresa said. "They're very resilient. But they are also very young so they are understandably nervous and scared about not having answers and not being in their home."
While Brennan and Caroline are coping day to day, the children in Peggy's classroom who didn't evacuate are the ones with the "horror stories."
"When you watch on TV someone getting rescued by a helicopter it doesn't have a lot of impact on you," Jim said. "But she's got those kids in her classroom. Kids who wandered through the neighborhood trying to find a dry spot, riding on an inflatable Sponge Bob Squarepants chair because none of them could swim … and mom and dad pulled them through the street until they found somebody who could pick them up. It's different when you meet people who actually had to live through that and deal with that as opposed to watching it on TV."
"… This is what they talk about. This is their life every moment of every waking day," Teresa added. "And this is just one family out of 250,000 families doing the same thing."
After returning home to Darboy, Teresa summarized their experiences in a letter to those who had made donations: "I don't think that we will ever fully understand the appreciation these families felt for our efforts and offerings. It was a joy to watch them delight in a gift of a 'real' plate, new towels, hand-me-down clothes, a warm blanket. Whether new, used or hand-made, every item was accepted with genuine enthusiasm and a grateful heart," Teresa wrote.
While the downside of their trip was witnessing the terrible devastation, "the upside is we have made a connection with a family and, hopefully, given them something they can use as building blocks to start to put their lives back together," she said.
"The experience for us was something we won't ever forget. I felt like I had to thank them for letting us do that," she said.
The trip filled Teresa with mixed emotions. "We certainly did some things very good. This was a wonderful opportunity to teach the kids that life is about giving. And it wasn't just us. It was the community that helped us give.
"At the same time, even though you feel good about it, the scope of it is so massive, that it doesn't feel like you did quite enough."
That feeling of self-doubt turned into one of helplessness since the Baths learned that Paul has been diagnosed with stage 4 lymphoma. Teresa called the news "heart wrenching."
"I don't understand why and we're too far away to hold their hands. All we can do is love and support them and wish them well."
Teresa, however, did not stop there. She has set up a fund for the Kavanaugh family while Paul is undergoing medical treatment in Houston. Donations to the Kavanaugh Family Fund can be made at any KimCentral location including 1093 Appleton Rd., Menasha or 665 Ridgeview, Appleton; or call Teresa at 687-0679.
Coming next: After leaving Baton Rouge, the Baths moved on to visit Teresa's former college roommate, who gave them a tour of New Orleans. They were amazed by the devastation and loss they saw firsthand.