Dinner honors Mennonites

Kevin King, executive director of the Mennonite Disaster Service, will be the featured guest speaker at an appreciation dinner tomorrow, April 26 at 6:30 p.m., in Newton.

King was widely quoted after the hurricanes of 2005 as saying, "This is an unprecedented disaster demanding an unprecedented response."

Mennonites have come to Newton for two winters, when their families can spare them from working the fields back home, to help rebuild houses damaged by Hurricane Rita.

On average, 30 volunteers will stay at the East Texas Baptist Encampment south of Newton. When they swarm a house, they can re-roof a home in a matter of days. They have also built new homes from scratch.

Marlin Gingerich, local project manager, said, "We try to help people who really need it and can't get help otherwise."

He said most of the jobs are referrals from Walter Diggles, executive director of the Deep East Texas Council of Governments, or from local churches.

The appreciation dinner follows the groundbreaking ceremony for Magnolia Place, a new Self Help Housing subdivision at the corner of Magnolia and Jackson Streets in Newton.

The dinner at Armstrong Chapel on Rusk Street is cosponsored by the church, Self Help Housing, and other organizations to honor the Mennonite men and women who have left their homes to help those in need in East Texas.