More on Landmark Education Graduates those Whose Homes Were Destroyed by Katrina
Posted on 02. Jul, 2009 by Nadia in Community Projects, News
Here is other news coverage related to Dave and Ann Peterson, Landmark Forum graduates who put up Katrina refugees for free at their hotel (original story from Dallas Observer).
The motel is providing everything from toiletries to internet access for evacuees.
While official city and county buildings are considered the major shelters for Hurricane Katrina evacuees in Dallas, there is another one worth mention.
In fact, it’s not a shelter at all, but a motel – and it is serving more evacuees than Reunion Arena.
The outside of the Quality Inn on Market Center Boulevard looks like many other motels in Dallas, but if you walk inside you’ll find something entirely unique – something that should make this whole city proud.
What started with a few room bookings before the storm hit has evolved into a shelter and resource center for, at one point, 400 hungry and homeless evacuees.
Innkeeper Dave Peterson and his wife Anne said the grateful response and warm smiles melted their hearts.
“That’s what our mission is: that everyone here gets taken care of no matter what,” Peterson said.
Apart from the free rooms, three catered meals a day, housing assistance, job assistance, medical care, transportation and internet resources, there is also a back-lot warehouse filled with donated goods – clothes, shoes, toys, toiletries and more – where guests can take whatever they need.
“We specifically designed it with everything available so that somebody who has lost everything, when they walk in here, they can see they can have anything,” Peterson said.
What a dejected Barbara Williams wishes she could see is her two brothers left behind in New Orleans. For her, the Petersons provide comfort.
“Sometimes I come in here and I sit and cry, and the lady, she’ll come and hug me,” Williams said.
But look all around, and you’ll find in nearly every face a sense of relief, security and hope.
“I just want to thank everybody in Dallas, Texas for opening up … (and) everything they’ve given us,” said evacuee Alina Tate.
