Community Involvement | Bakken Builing and Remodeling

By Jennifer Edwards
Staff Writer

Like most Americans, Big Lake builder D. J. Bakken watched Hurricane Katrina slam into the Gulf states on the television in his living room and felt God stirring his heart to do something.

While most people sent donations of money, food and other items, he decided to go himself.

“I just wanted to be down there.” he said.

The Bakken family was planning a family reunion that weekend following the storm. Bakken was supposed to go. Unknown to his family or employees, D. J. packed a truck full of tools, loaded a skid loader onto a trailer and headed south to Louisiana with Rene McCullough from Monticello and a small team of volunteers. Only his wife, Merry, knew he was gone.

Bakken arrived in Slidell, LA, a suburb north of Lake Ponchatrane, and met Pastor Johnny Bayer, whose church was largely undamaged and incorporated a family resource center. The damage left by the storm was horrendous.

“There was no power and no water,” Bakken said. “But we had brought an electrician with us. He had the power working in the church in less than an hour. Then we had water. Still, I was wondering how we were going to help.”

That night, they were joined by People Helping People, an emergency response team from Indiana churches, headed by Jeff Cardwell to help with emergency situations across the country. They had a bus load of volunteers and four semi-loads of supplies.

“We took a sawsall and cut a hole in the side of the gymnasium and started unloading food,” Bakken said. “That first day, we served 1,000 people.”

The Salvation Army joined their efforts and took over serving meals. The Marines stepped in to help hand out supplies. In the course of two weeks, over 27 semi-loads of supplies, two from Elk River, were received and distributed. They fed 9,000 people in the first week, including FEMA workers.

The volunteers sorted themselves into work crews, unloading semis and going out into the community to help repair damaged homes.

“Trees had fallen on some. We helped cut them up and move them,” Bakken said. “Others were structurally sound but had water damage. We removed furniture, tore out sheet rock and insulation, disinfected the walls and let them dry, then put in new insulation and sheet rock,” Bakken said.

On To Pascagoula
Bakken and McCullogh left the distribution center in Slidell in the capable hands of the Marines and the Salvation Army and moved on to Pascagoula, MS, to provide the people there with the same kind of assistance. They went through another 30 semi-loads of supplies there.

“We were filling the gap between what insurance pays and what FEMA would provide,” Bakken said. “One thing that struck me was that the hurricane had hit rich and poor alike. They were all in the same boat, suddenly finding themselves homeless.”

In Pascagoula, Bakken became aware of another problem. The Jackson County Sheriffs Dept. had been working 16-hour days, seven days a week, helping to rebuild their city. At the same time, their own homes were in need of repair and their own families had evacuated.

“I made a commitment to help them rebuild their homes so their families can come back and support them,” Bakken said. “Many had no flood insurance.”

Bakken was there for two weeks before coming back to Minnesota.

“I’m lucky I have the kind of job where I can do that and a great team of employees who support me,” he said. “But God told me I wasn’t done yet. I had to share the story.”

Back Three Times
Since the hurricane struck, Bakken has been back to the area three times with groups of volunteers and his family has gone with him. Over Thanksgiving, 32 volunteers fed 1,100 people. They also answered a call from a hospital looking for supplies.

D.J. has formed Hope Filled Hands, a charitable organization under the umbrella of River Center, INC, an international network of Christians founded last summer by Chuck Ripka of Riverview Bank of Otsego to help connect volunteers in emergency situations on a global scale.

“The idea is to create a network so when something happens, we have supplies and a plan in place,” Bakken said.

Hope Filled Hands has been raising funds to buy more sheetrock. The first goal is to restore 50 water damaged homes for about $1,000 each in 50 days. Volunteers are needed to go to Louisiana and help. Donations of money and materials are also needed, along with prayer for the victims, Bakken says.

On Christmas day, Bakken will lead a team of volunteers, including family members, south to continue the work which has been started. They plan to return Jan. 1.

El Salvador Calls
“I am encouraged by D.J.’s vision for filling the needs of these people,” said Ripka. “He is giving his time and his resources to do this difficult work of rebuilding, and stepping up to take a leadership role. His willingness to go reflects his obedience to God’s call on his life. God blesses that and uses it to open doors to so many other opportunities to help.”

Cardwell also invited Bakken to El Salvador, the scene of a recent terrible earthquake. Bakken met First Lady Ana Ligia di Saca, who asked him to build a community for the people left homeless by the earthquake, beginning with a clinic, a church and a community center.

Also, While he was in the south, Bakken met Milton Fuller, founder of Habitat for Humanity. Fuller has now founded the Fuller Center for Housing, which plans to build 1,000 homes in a project called Building On Higher Ground. Bakken plans to be available to help him.
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To make a donation to Hope Filled Hands, or to volunteer to go as a helper, contact
River Center, INC on the internet and click on Hope Filled Hands.

Star News - Team's help includes lending an ear

By Susan M.A. Larson
Staff Writer

The stories born of Hurricane Katrina are as abundant as the water-soaked homes she created, and Slidell, La., is no exception.

In addition to gutting and clearing these homes, the Hope-Filled Hands crew of Elk River has spent almost as much time lending a compassionate ear to the homeowners.

“Even standing in line at stores,” observed Ann Marie Erickson, a Hope-Filled Hands member, “if people find out you’re not from here, they’re eager to tell you their story. It’s a healing process for them and you have to be a good listener.”

D.J. Bakken, a Hope-Filled Hands coordinator, told of a 73-year-old woman who tried to gut out her home on her own. His father, Jerry Bakken, recalled a man, already in ill health, who slept on his soaked matress by covering it with plastic and a woman who would rather live in 2 feet of water than leave her home. The hurricane, Jerry hopes, will force people to see and deal with the poverty that was there before Katrina.

Some homes that were not destroyed were overcome with felled trees, which Hope-Filled Hands cut and cleared away.

Hope crew member Nancy Cato helped carry away the brush and wood the crew cut at the home of a couple near Slidell. Their daughter was staying with them because Katrina destroyed her home; she worked alongside the Elk River crew as they cleared her parents’ property.

“She said it was such a joy to have (the wood) cut up,” said Cato. “The gratitude (of the people) is outstanding.”

Gratitude is something Bobby Davis knows a lot about.

Davis is living in a FEMA trailer in Community Christian Church parking lot in Slidell. His wife, Cindy, who is ill with cancer, was evacuated to stay with family in Indiana before Katrina hit. He had to stay behind in Slidell because of his job with the city.

Their home was destroyed, but he is thankful to finally have a small FEMA trailer, a place to park it, and the fact that his wife was finally coming home to him the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It will be the first time they have been together since she left.
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Star News - Katrina Aftermath

By Susan M.A. Larson
Staff Writer

Hurricane Katrina’s devastation was nondiscriminatory, leaving nothing untouched.

Three months later, in Slidell, La., debris still hangs from tree limbs, like so much macabre foliage. Boats are left where Katrina docked them— the sides of roads, the middle of yards, the middle of nowhere.

Business after business sits empty. Some are waiting to be repaired. Others have been done in by the fact that there is no money to pay help, or people just have no money to spend. A few merchants have been able to park trailers in their parking lots as makeshift stores.

Clean-up attempts have been massive, as evidenced by endless piles of rubble that line the streets waiting for pick up. But with damage so massive, the job of recovery is even more so.

While viewing the wreckage of Slidell, the Hope-Filled Hands team met residents Paula and Richard Wust, at the site of what once was their home on Lake Ponchartrain. The Wusts lost not one but two homes: their residence in St. Bernard and the “camp home” on the lake, which had been in Richard’s family for 50 years. It was the house he grew up in, and it withstood past storms, until Katrina bullied her way through.

The Wusts will “probably” rebuild the camp home on the lake.

“It’s close to the city and we can bring our boat over and fish right here,” Paula explained.

“I’m going to build it back up,” Richard interjected, “but I’m going to build it very high, at least 15 feet.”

The future of their home in St. Bernard is undecided.

“How can we put money into a home,” Paula asked, “if we don’t know if the government is going to put money into a levy, then be hit by a big storm again next year?”

The Wusts currently rent a home in Metairie. They can’t begin to rebuild anything until insurance companies and other red tape is waded through. They expressed frustration at the slow pace of recovery and the unfairness of recovery assistance distribution.

Life, nonetheless, goes on. “You cry a little, but you laugh a little,” said Paula. “What else can you do? It’ll be years before things are fine. Many, many years.”
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Star News - Local team begins work in Slidell

By Susan M.A. Larson
Staff Writer

(Editor’s Note: Star News writer Susan Larson accompanied the Hope-Filled Hands crew to Slidell, La., and will be posting updates on the Star News Web site.)

SLIDELL, La. - Elk River’s Alliance Community Church was the launching pad for a bunch of eager hearts ready to lend a hand wherever it was needed.

The Hope-Filled Hands group left for Slidell, La., on Saturday, determined to make a difference in the lives of those still smarting from the bruises left by Hurricane Katrina. While many were not quite sure what they would find there, they had time and talents they were willing to share. The mission of the trip is “Fifty days/$50,000/50 homes,” with a goal of repairing 50 water-damaged homes by the end of the year. This particular group, however, will only be gone for a week, returning home Nov. 27.

The crew left Elk River 8:30 a.m. Saturday, traveling straight through (with a few necessary stops here and there) until reaching Slidell at 5:50 a.m. Sunday.

One of the coordinators of the trip, D.J. Bakken, had first been to Louisiana days after Katrina struck.

“It was hot and steamy and it smelled of dead fish,” he recalled.

On that trip, he was one of a group of eight.

“I wondered how eight people were going to do anything,” he admitted. But when another group of volunteers showed up, his question was answered.

Relating that story to the Hope-Filled Hands group Sunday morning, Bakken told them, “God’s got a divine appointment for every one of us here.”

Todd Hinchcliff, Elk River, admitted he didn’t know what to expect in Louisiana.

“I just want to do what I can to help,” he said. “I’m self-employed in drywall construction and I saw the need.”

To explain his absence to his children, ages 6 and 8, “I told them daddy’s going to help other families and other kids who don’t have a roof over their heads. That made sense to them.”

Ann Marie Erickson has been on several missions to the Ukraine before, so the fact that the Louisiana trip was “closer to home” made it that more appealing to her.

“God called me to go and I love missions,” said Erickson. “I love serving and I felt compelled to go.”

While in Slidell, Erickson planned to organize food preparation and help feed the work teams.

Speaking of teams, Doris Dirnberger made the trip with her husband, Jack.

“We work well together and Jack is very handy,” said Doris. “I felt it was something we could do and I think it will make us feel more thankful when we see those people.”

On the way to Slidell, Doris said she was expecting it to be “depressing and desolate.”

A tour of the wreckage Sunday confirmed her expectations.

“I can’t see how it could be,” said Doris, “that some of the houses not very sturdily built are still standing and some of the larger ones were just gone. There were so few children on the street. And all the downed trees. It’ll take just forever to clear them out. The town is so subdued. At the gas station there was no, ‘Hey, Joe, how’s it going?’ It was just people going about their business, doing what they had to do.”’

The Elk River team was joined Monday by a team of volunteers from Alabama.
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St. Cloud Times - Area man returns to rebuild in South

By Benjamin Malakoff

Dudley Nix remembers he was "hot, sweaty, muddy, nasty" as he lugged his countertop across the road in front of his home in Pascagoula, Miss.

It was a few months after Hurricane Katrina hit. A van pulled up and a man got out, asking Nix: "Can I help you?"

"When I said yeah, he gave a wave and 13 people jumped out of that van and started working," Nix said by phone with a Mississippi drawl. "I was just in total amazement."

That man was D.J. Bakken, president and owner of Bakken Builders, based in Big Lake. Almost a year after helping Nix - and a year after Katrina caused so many to need help - Bakken is at it again, rallying 100 people to build homes in Louisiana.

Bakken will lead workers from Minnesota to Shreveport, La., for eight days starting Sept. 16. The crew will build 10 houses in five days as part of a larger push to construct 60 homes. That larger effort is led by Millard Fuller, founder of Habitat for Humanity.

Repeating Aid - People from Big Lake and Elk River will go, including volunteers from 11 churches. Bakken is raising funds for five of those homes, a total of $250,000. The Minnesota state prison in Faribault will make $18,000 worth of cabinets, and an Illinois state prison will build the walls.

The volunteer group also will work in Pascagoula to repair the damaged homes of police officers.

This adds to the relief work Bakken did after Katrina first hit.

Last year, he put a skid loader and other tools on a truck and went south. He ended up on the north side of Lake Pontchartrain, opening a relief center and helping dole out 2.5 million pounds of food and supplies.

Bakken met Nix after a trip to Louisiana during which he served 1,100 Thanksgiving meals. He has since raised $150,000 and started a nonprofit organization.

Scott Rothmeyer of Rothmeyer Construction, is one of the volunteers who will accompany Bakken on this year's trip.

"I guess I would say it's more a personal thing for me, more a ministry thing," Rothmeyer said. "I know D.J. I've been to his church. I know him to be a great Christian man that speaks to the Lord. I've basically found God in my life, and this is a way for me to serve."

Given up - Nix cursed God as the storm hit and as he lugged the countertop out of his house.

He sent his wife to her aunt's house in Tennessee and didn't see her for 28 days. "I had to be the strong one," he said. "I didn't cry or anything for nine months or so. I wanted to."

Nix said he had "pretty much given up on everything" by the time Bakken reached him. Almost eight feet of water caked mud on his floor and left nothing untouched, save for the ceiling fans. He received $320 from his insurance.

Nix wondered what he would do after Bakken's crew finished gutting his house. His monthly $925 disability checks didn't leave much for Sheetrock.

Bakken offered to pay for the Sheetrock. Nix accepted, and then the two prayed.

Thanksgiving - After Bakken and his crew left, Nix sat on his floor — a clean floor in a clean house that used to have mud creeping up the furniture.

"After they left that day, I sat down on that floor and cried for three hours," Nix said. "When they left, it was clean floors, no walls and I just sat there on the floor and cried and asked God for forgiveness.
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Monticello Times - Locals shelter Hurricane victims

By Chad Eldred

After seeing the devastation left behind in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which left thousands in the Gulf Coast region without homes or hope, D.J. Bakken from Monticello knew he had to do something.

In conjunction with other national organizations, including "People Helping People" in Indiana and the "Fuller Center for Housing" (a group started by the founder of Habitat for Humanity), Bakken founded the non-profit organization "Hope Filled Hands," which has organized relief efforts and built homes for hurricane-stricken residents in Louisiana.

Bakken was compelled to travel to the Gulf Coast after watching television reports about the devastation in the area. Not knowing exactly what he was going to do, but knowing he had to do something, Bakken left town after sending an e-mail to his company, stating he didn't know when he was coming back, but that he had to leave.

Bakken arrived in Slidell, La. on Labor Day weekend with little knowledge of who to help or even how to help. Bakken said he credited his faith in guiding him through those first days, because he had arrived even before members of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

"The first night I was down there, I was thinking,'What am I going to do?' All I did was, I was willing to take a step out in faith and just go."

If guidance was what he was looking for, that's exactly what he got. Shortly after arriving, Bakken made an unexpected connection with members of "People Helping People," and began unloading trucks full of supplies. Not long after that, nearly 60 marines joined their makeshift cause, and soon the group was unloading five to seven semi trailers full of food and supplies every day. All told, the group distributed more than two million pounds of food and supplies.

"We had supplies from California and Texas, and we had about 57 semi trailer loads of supplies come in, and I have no idea where they all came from," Bakken said. "That was a miracle."

Building houses and clearing roads weren't the only contributions made. Bakken said giving emotional support was something he had not anticipated, but he said providing a shoulder to cry on during their time of crisis was the most important thing the citizens needed.

"Everybody has a story," he said. "We would just listen and give them a hug and pray for them. And as soon as we would do that, it was like there was a weight lifted off their back."

After two weeks passed, Bakken returned home, but, through faith and a sense of duty, he knew a return trip was in his future.

"When I came home, the media was on to the next thing, so a lot of people were thinking that things were fine or were taken care of," he said. "So my part was to share what's been happening down there and say there was still a lot of need." And that's where Travis Basavage came in.

A fellow home builder, and Bakken's hometown competitor, Basavage was first introduced to the cause at a home show. A video played by Bakken was the beginning of Basavage's involvement with "Hope Filled Hands." He said he knew he had found his calling.

"Just watching the video, it struck me how people came together to help other people in a situation like this," Basavage said. "I went down there nine months later, and I saw the same devastation that was there two weeks after it hit. People still didn't have electricity, and they still didn't have houses."

Stationed at two different area churches, Basavage said his group concentrated on one block at a time, and eventually the scope of the effort expanded.

"It started out just as a clean-up. trying to get to these people's houses with bobcats," he said. "And then it just got to be more and more and more."

One particular project impacted him the most. Basavage met with the sheriff of the Jackson County Mississippi Sheriff's Department and began to help police officers get back into their homes. In the end, the project housed around 70 officers.

"They were working 18 to 20 hours a day on the force and not getting paid overtime," Basavage said. "With the little bit of rest and family time that they did have, we definitely wanted them to get back in their houses right away."

The thanks and gratitude he received for the job he was doing were worth all of the sweat and hard work, he said.

"You can't get away from somebody down there that you've helped without getting a hug or having a tear in your eye," Basavage said. "They couldn't believe that somebody from a little town like Elk River or Monticello would actually come down and help the average guy."

Basavage has so far made three trips to the area, and said he has mixed feelings about leaving Louisiana and the people he helped.

"It is very hard to leave, but knowing that we have an organization that will allow others to go down there and experience what I've experienced, it is something that I needed to get back to," he said.

And with that determination as a mindset, the work of "Hope Filled Hands" continues. The organization is putting together a project called Building on Higher Ground, which is an attempt to build 10 houses in five days from Sept. 18-23 in Shreveport, La. In a coordinated effort with "People Helping People" and the "Fuller Center for Housing," the organizations are raising $500,000, with $250,000 coming from "Hope Filled Hands."

Anyone interested in helping with the effort can attend the organization's meetings at 7 p.m. every Tuesday at Bakken Homes in Big Lake. Those interested in helping can sign up to travel to Louisiana or can write checks directly to "Hope Filled Hands" with 100 percent of the funds going to the relief efforts. Call 263-3900 for more information.

"There are so many ways that people can get involved and help," Basavage said. "The community is coming together again, and it is just awesome to see what people come up with."
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"Hope Filled Hands" also has a Web site at www.HopeFilledHands.com.

Bakken Building and Remodeling in The News

Star News - Local Builder takes on Katrina

Star News - Team's help includes lending an ear

Star News - Katrina Aftermath

Star News - Local team begins work in Slidell

St. Cloud Times - Area man returns to rebuild in South

Monticello Times - Locals shelter Hurricane victims