St. Tammany News

Best kept secret no more, Mandeville's Samaritan Center on 402 Girod St. is beefing up efforts to acquire additional volunteers with the construction of a new Web site.

Director Dena Dyer said a gentleman in England is donating his time to build the new Web page, but she emphasizes it is still under construction and will likely be completed in a few weeks. At www.samcen.org, you can peruse through historical data, a calendar of events, sponsored church links and information about specific items needed by the center. One of the most important aspects of the site Dyer boasted of will be the option to donate money using the PayPal feature.

In addition to the Web site, an open house was held recently to allow the public and potential volunteers to experience the internal makings of the center.

In 1989, 12 churches in Lacombe and Mandeville elected to create a central location for storage and distribution of donated goods to the less fortunate in the community, thus creating the nonprofit Samaritan Center, the only one of its kind in Mandeville. It began with a single, multipurpose structure where donated goods such as clothes and canned items were housed and sold in the makeshift thrift store at nominal prices to help the needy.

It has since grown into a larger facility with two buildings side-by-side on Girod Street, one used for administrative and food-storage purposes and the other serves as the drop-off center and thrift store.

When the site receives goods from individuals they are sorted, cleaned and priced to sell in the thrift store named Gran's Attic.

Dyer said the goal of the center is to ultimately help individuals to provide for themselves.

"We are truly trying to wake people to self-sufficiency," she said.

The center was in full swing with nearly 120 volunteers helping to serve hundreds of families in need when Katrina brought 18 inches of water into the facility.

With the storm more than two years behind them, the center continues to experience a surge of individuals from the Lacombe and Mandeville areas who need monetary or materialistic help, but the center is down to 60 volunteers, which is inhibiting its ability to assist the copious demands of the community.

According to Assistant Director Margaret Whitelaw, the facility would not function without the volunteers.

"It's run by volunteers," she said. "We're looking for extra volunteers to help sort clothes and price items."

To help with the shortage in financial donations, the center is hosting a fish and chicken fry fundraising event for the first time. It will be held at Tammany Oaks Church, 3700 U.S. Highway 49, March 8 from 11 to 5 p.m. Tickets are available at the center and are $7 each.

For more information, call 626-4457.