New Orleans visit inspires Phil Burnett

Phil Burnett

FIXING FASCIA: Phil Burnett, 57, wasn’t afraid to get dirty rebuilding houses for New Orleans musicians while attending a National Congress of Cities exposition there recently.

Phil Burnett

MUSICIAN’S VILLAGE: Volunteers are helping to build 70 homes for retired and homeless jazz and blues musicians in New Orleans’ devastated Upper Ninth Ward.

When Anderson City Council member Phil Burnett first learned earlier this year that the National Congress of Cities’ annual convention and exposition would be held Nov. 13-17 in New Orleans, he knew it would be an interesting event to attend. However, he never expected the experience to be so life changing.

“I had never been there (New Orleans) before, but it has been in the news so much that I wanted to satisfy my curiosity and see the devastation for myself,” Burnett said.

Before, during and after the convention, Burnett spent a total of seven days in and around the iconic Gulf Coast city that was devastated in late August of 2005 when Hurricane Katrina washed ashore. The storm caused 53 levies protecting New Orleans to fail and left nearly 80 percent of the city flooded as thousands of families fled or were made homeless.

“It was an amazing experience because the setting was so poignant,” Burnett commented.

As part of his convention experience, Burnett and approximately 50 of the convention’s more than 4,000 total delegates, representing thousands of cities from throughout the United States, spent a full day as volunteers on a Habitat for Humanity International project.

They worked from 7:30 a.m. to well after 4:30 p.m. with just a short, 20-minute lunch break, to help provide 70 homes for jazz, blues, and other musicians who were forced to flee the Upper Ninth Ward of New Orleans during the storm.

Crooner Harry Connick, Jr., and noted jazz performers and brothers Branford and Ellis Marsalis are spearheading the development known as Musicians’ Village, Burnett said.

“I don’t mind getting dirty,” Burnett, 57, said of his decision to join the Habitat volunteers. “I’ve spent a lifetime as a (house) painter, and although I am no carpenter, as a painter you get involved in a bit of everything just by being around the other trades.”

Burnett spent much of his volunteer workday standing atop a 12-foot ladder hanging fascia boards under the eaves of newly constructed homes.

“There is so much that needs to be done down there, not just in New Orleans, but throughout the entire Gulf Coast. And it’s getting done, a little bit each day by throwing bodies and materials at the rebuilding projects,” he commented.

Working alongside a group of five teenage girls from the Seattle area, some of whom he said “had obviously never before been on the working end of a hammer,” made Burnett realize that the cities and neighborhoods most successful in rebuilding after some devastating event do so not because of massive government intervention. Instead, they succeed primarily through the sheer will and determined effort of dedicated individuals who band together as a community.

“I was really struck by the fact that it really falls on all of us to rebuild our own cities,” Burnett said over a cold beverage following the holiday-shortened Anderson City Council meeting last Tuesday evening.

“It gave me an idea. Since there are no limitation on how Habitat for Humanity International spends its money, why not come together as a community and build a home for a policeman fresh out of the academy, or a deserving teacher who may not otherwise be able to afford a place of his or her own to live,” Burnett explained.

During his eight years on the Anderson City Council, Burnett has twice before mentioned Habitat for Humanity as a possible source of help in providing housing for some of southern Shasta County’s most needy. Both times before, city staffers and elected members of the council appeared somewhat cool to the concept.

However, that was before Burnett had personally become involved in a Habitat project.

“I had never before been involved in a Habitat project at the hands-on level. But there are nearly 4,000 homeless people in Shasta County alone,” Burnett passionately reminds a listener.

“Most of the money that is donated each year to help these people simply goes to provide food. That is how much in need these people are. They need food more than they need a roof over their heads,” Burnett continued.

Burnett is so convinced that his idea of providing housing for a young city police officer or school teacher has merit that he intends to explore the issue more fully with local Habitat for Humanity organizers. Then, he intends to come back to the Anderson City Council with a full-blown proposal that he hopes everybody will endorse.

“For me personally, it makes me want to act, to donate, to give of my time, and to donate money,” Burnett said of his most recent passion. “Our county is really blessed with people who want to give.”