August 27, 2009

A new community center in the town of Pearlington, Miss. has become what local residents call a "recovery center."

On Friday, members of the Building Goodness Foundation in Charlottesville will fly down to Pearlington to see first hand the impact they've had on the town.

The group started working with Pearlington right after Hurricane Katrina. The community center has taken the last two years to build. The grand opening of the center is on Saturday, but Pearlington residents have already been using the building for important family events.

"For the people of Pearlington to have a place where they can celebrate something like a wedding or a family reunion, it's very satisfying to know that we were a part of doing that," said the project coordinator and President of Martin Horn Inc., Jack Horn.

The Pearlington community center is the largest project that Building Goodness has taken on. Before the community center, the group also built 140 sheds in the town to help bring that town back to life.

Over the course of two years, Building Goodness made 40 trips with volunteers down to Pearlington to work on the community center.

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