Swooping In to Help Our Region

When disaster struck after Hurricane Ian, Praying Pelican Missions swooped in to help our region.

In late January, Gulf Coast Community Foundation (Gulf Coast) provided a $20,000 Hurricane Ian Recovery Initiative grant to Praying Pelican Missions to assist Sarasota, DeSoto, Charlotte, and Lee County neighbors requiring assistance with home repair needs and basic humanitarian aid post-Hurricane Ian.

Praying Pelican Missions is a non-denominational, nonprofit organization that brings typically youth volunteers into disaster recovery sites. When disaster strikes, the organization is on the frontlines of response and relief efforts, working with local authorities and organizing grassroots efforts to meet the pressing needs of communities. They have been helping with Hurricane Ian recovery in our Gulf Coast region since September. The volunteers get up to 40 hours of community service per site visit and they are hosted by community churches, where they eat and sleep for the week they are working.

Dillon Crum, who is the local lead with Praying Pelican Missions, organizes a group of volunteers who are flying into Sarasota every week from another city to donate a week of hurricane cleanup service. Most of the participants are high school/college age and get service credit for these trips.

Gulf Coast’s Director of Community Leadership, Dr. Kameron Hodgens, recently visited with Praying Pelican Missions on-site to learn more about their work. “Gulf Coast is honored to support Praying Pelican Missions as our region continues the arduous work of recovering from Hurricane Ian. The volunteers visiting our area weekly as a part of this organization selflessly assist homeowners with the overwhelming tasks of yard and home cleanup. The work they are doing is life changing and truly commendable,” said Dr. Hodgens.

On the day of Dr. Hodgen’s visit, the group of volunteers were from Scottsdale, Arizona. The property owner they were visiting was an adult daughter living with her WWII veteran father. His wife/her mom passed away a few months ago. She posted the need for yard assistance on a crisis cleanup webpage and Praying Pelican Missions reached out to her to coordinate the visit. They trimmed back branches from trees and picked up multiple trash cans of debris.

The other half of the Arizona visitors were in Charlotte County to do a muck and gut of a house. The group is staying at Church of the Palms in Sarasota. Between now and the end of summer, different groups will fly in in each week to assist our region. Their long-term goal is to have a presence in our region permanently as a part of a larger disaster preparedness, recovery, and support vision. Praying Pelican Missions has done this in other parts of the country in partnership with local churches.

“Thank you for taking the time to meet and for your partnership meeting the needs of Sarasota County and those affected by Hurricane Ian.  We are honored by your contribution and will use these funds with great care in disaster response for southwest Florida,” said Praying Pelican Mission’s Director of Disaster Response and Organizational Development Grant Hoel.

Gulf Coast is honored to support organizations who are helping with hurricane cleanup efforts that are still in need months and months after Hurricane Ian passed.