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Flying into the ‘eye' of Katrina's aftermath
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By: TED S. STRATTON, Staff Reporter
Former Air Force pilot on a mission to provide community center for Mississippi cities
Cholene Espinoza, 41, has lived many lives: Air Force pilot, reporter, trainer and activist. But her hardest and most rewarding job came within the last year, she says.
Espinoza has been helping rebuild a small community in coastal Mississippi flattened by Hurricane Katrina. Her task is still ongoing; she hopes to raise enough money to construct a community center to educate children and provide a refuge in a devastated town.
"It's been the challenge and privilege of a lifetime,” says the petite United Airlines pilot, who was in Cleveland for the Passover holiday and to promote her book of memoirs, Through the Eye of the Storm (Chelsea Green, 2006, $14).
Espinoza's partner is Ellen Ratner, cousin of Charles Ratner, president and chief executive officer of Forest City Inc.
Espinoza, a devout Christian, discovered her Jewish roots after meeting Ratner, who runs a talk radio news bureau in Washington and is a consultant for Fox News.
After doing research in the Southwest, Espinoza discovered that her father's family in New Mexico was descended from crypto, or hidden Jews. They fled the Spanish Inquisition in 1492 and moved to Mexico, then north to a small town near Santa Fe where succeeding generations lived for over 400 years. Espinoza grew up without knowing her heritage or any Jewish practices.
"Most of the Jewish traditions died with my great-grandfather,” she says. He wore a hat at all times, slaughtered animals in a kosher manner and drank Mogen David wine. The family had a menorah, but Espinoza thought "it was a Christmas decoration, because instead of candles it had electric lights.”
It was partly the Ratner family's dedication to charitable causes that inspired Espinoza to go down to Mississippi shortly after the hurricane hit.
"In my family, the number one value was loyalty, because of their history,” Espinoza says. "Being around Ellen and her family, their driving value is charity.”
Ratner wasn't even sure she wanted to travel to the hurricane zone at all. She had been planning a vacation with Espinoza, until she encountered a family on a plane trip back from Houston.
Ratner admonished a mother for letting her children "crawl all over the place” on the plane. The two women then began to chat, and Ratner found out the woman was Shantrell Nicks, a lawyer from Pass Christian, Mississippi, a town completely leveled by Hurricane Katrina. They exchanged contact information, and Ratner promised to help Nicks's community.
Back home in New York, Espinoza felt a sense of personal responsibility to help the victims. She had seen what happened on TV and heard statistics about wastefulness by FEMA and other relief organizations. "I was bitter and angry about the government response. I asked, ‘What can we do about it?'”
Instead of a vacation, Ratner and Espinoza flew down to Pass Christian to deliver supplies and provide aid. What they saw was shocking. The community didn't need old clothes or linens. They needed homes, electricity, water and money. Apart from one church, Mt. Zion United Methodist in DeLisle, a few miles inland from Pass Christian, there were no community buildings where the whole community could gather.
Espinoza spent weeks in Pass Christian and DeLisle, getting to know the community and helping with construction and relief work. After many return trips - her job as an airline pilot gives her ten days off per month - she hatched the idea for a community/vocational center as an antidote for some of the area's problems.
Together with Rosemary Williams, the pastor of Mt. Zion church, they created a plan for a center that would provide recreational and educational opportunities for the area.
Raising money has been difficult. Forest City helped out, and Ellen's cousins, Ron Ratner and Joan Shafran, visited the site. KA architects in Cleveland donated the plans for the 12,000-square-foot center, which includes classrooms, meeting rooms, and a gymnasium. Espinoza will also donate all proceeds from the sale of her book to fund the center. The cost of the center is $1 million, and they have raised about $300,000 so far.
Espinoza feels amazingly welcomed by the community that she admits she was wary about at first. "We're from New York, and we're about as different from the community as you can get,” she explains. But "we shared common interests and common goals,” she says.
Ratner, who spent her childhood in Memphis, Tenn., and Cleveland, is impressed by the resiliency of the Pass Christian community. "It reminds me of growing up in Shaker Heights and the larger Jewish community. Here it was temple-centered. There, everything is church-centered.” As a result of the hurricane, she says, there is also a lot more mixing among the ethnic groups: black, white and Hispanic.
They haven't broken ground yet on the Pass Christian-DeLisle Community Center, and contributions and physical help are needed. Proceeds from the book will help, but it won't be enough. However, the former military flying ace isn't giving up her dream anytime soon. Quoting the Book of Proverbs she says, "people without vision are dead.'”
For more information about the book and the community center project, visit http://www.throughtheeye ofthestorm. com
tstratton@cjn.org
Cholene Espinoza, 41, has lived many lives: Air Force pilot, reporter, trainer and activist. But her hardest and most rewarding job came within the last year, she says.
Espinoza has been helping rebuild a small community in coastal Mississippi flattened by Hurricane Katrina. Her task is still ongoing; she hopes to raise enough money to construct a community center to educate children and provide a refuge in a devastated town.
"It's been the challenge and privilege of a lifetime,” says the petite United Airlines pilot, who was in Cleveland for the Passover holiday and to promote her book of memoirs, Through the Eye of the Storm (Chelsea Green, 2006, $14).
Espinoza's partner is Ellen Ratner, cousin of Charles Ratner, president and chief executive officer of Forest City Inc.
Espinoza, a devout Christian, discovered her Jewish roots after meeting Ratner, who runs a talk radio news bureau in Washington and is a consultant for Fox News.
After doing research in the Southwest, Espinoza discovered that her father's family in New Mexico was descended from crypto, or hidden Jews. They fled the Spanish Inquisition in 1492 and moved to Mexico, then north to a small town near Santa Fe where succeeding generations lived for over 400 years. Espinoza grew up without knowing her heritage or any Jewish practices.
"Most of the Jewish traditions died with my great-grandfather,” she says. He wore a hat at all times, slaughtered animals in a kosher manner and drank Mogen David wine. The family had a menorah, but Espinoza thought "it was a Christmas decoration, because instead of candles it had electric lights.”
It was partly the Ratner family's dedication to charitable causes that inspired Espinoza to go down to Mississippi shortly after the hurricane hit.
"In my family, the number one value was loyalty, because of their history,” Espinoza says. "Being around Ellen and her family, their driving value is charity.”
Ratner wasn't even sure she wanted to travel to the hurricane zone at all. She had been planning a vacation with Espinoza, until she encountered a family on a plane trip back from Houston.
Ratner admonished a mother for letting her children "crawl all over the place” on the plane. The two women then began to chat, and Ratner found out the woman was Shantrell Nicks, a lawyer from Pass Christian, Mississippi, a town completely leveled by Hurricane Katrina. They exchanged contact information, and Ratner promised to help Nicks's community.
Back home in New York, Espinoza felt a sense of personal responsibility to help the victims. She had seen what happened on TV and heard statistics about wastefulness by FEMA and other relief organizations. "I was bitter and angry about the government response. I asked, ‘What can we do about it?'”
Instead of a vacation, Ratner and Espinoza flew down to Pass Christian to deliver supplies and provide aid. What they saw was shocking. The community didn't need old clothes or linens. They needed homes, electricity, water and money. Apart from one church, Mt. Zion United Methodist in DeLisle, a few miles inland from Pass Christian, there were no community buildings where the whole community could gather.
Espinoza spent weeks in Pass Christian and DeLisle, getting to know the community and helping with construction and relief work. After many return trips - her job as an airline pilot gives her ten days off per month - she hatched the idea for a community/vocational center as an antidote for some of the area's problems.
Together with Rosemary Williams, the pastor of Mt. Zion church, they created a plan for a center that would provide recreational and educational opportunities for the area.
Raising money has been difficult. Forest City helped out, and Ellen's cousins, Ron Ratner and Joan Shafran, visited the site. KA architects in Cleveland donated the plans for the 12,000-square-foot center, which includes classrooms, meeting rooms, and a gymnasium. Espinoza will also donate all proceeds from the sale of her book to fund the center. The cost of the center is $1 million, and they have raised about $300,000 so far.
Espinoza feels amazingly welcomed by the community that she admits she was wary about at first. "We're from New York, and we're about as different from the community as you can get,” she explains. But "we shared common interests and common goals,” she says.
Ratner, who spent her childhood in Memphis, Tenn., and Cleveland, is impressed by the resiliency of the Pass Christian community. "It reminds me of growing up in Shaker Heights and the larger Jewish community. Here it was temple-centered. There, everything is church-centered.” As a result of the hurricane, she says, there is also a lot more mixing among the ethnic groups: black, white and Hispanic.
They haven't broken ground yet on the Pass Christian-DeLisle Community Center, and contributions and physical help are needed. Proceeds from the book will help, but it won't be enough. However, the former military flying ace isn't giving up her dream anytime soon. Quoting the Book of Proverbs she says, "people without vision are dead.'”
For more information about the book and the community center project, visit http://www.throughtheeye ofthestorm. com
tstratton@cjn.org
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