If Katrina is an American tragedy, it is also the story of how an entire country is helping to repair hurricane damage. Twenty-two people, including members of five families from the Huguenot Road Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia are spending this week in Plaquemines Parish. It is the group's sixth trip to the area and three more are planned. The group is building entire homes.

"When we got here it was just the concrete pilings and floor Monday morning,” said church member Julie Carr. ”Since Monday morning, we have raised walls, inside, outside, and now the trusses are on the roof."

Leona Bartholomew’s home is one of three houses the group is working on this week, and the Virginia visitors treasure the relationships they form with people they help.

”They are so beautiful,’ said Bartholomew. “They are so kind. They come here early in the morning. They work in all that heat. They stay in all that heat. I fix watermelon for them, and tonight we're having a shrimp boil for them."

Just down the road, 110 members of the Impact Project of the Virginia Baptist Mission Board are working on two of the eight houses they are building this week along a 50-mile stretch of Plaquemines between Ironton and Bootheville.

"Insulation and dry walling,” said Kayla Thompson of Charles City, Virginia, describing the work she has done this week. She has had to endure heat she is not used to, but said the project is worth it.  “It’s just fun knowing that you're helping someone," she concluded.

But while the Virginia Impact Project is literally giving Plaquemines residents a new start, it is also changing the lives of the teenage volunteers.

"I think their lives have been changed dramatically by being able to come along on this project,” said Ron Williams of the Project.  “You can see that in their faces when they get back from the job site. They're all tired, and hot and sweaty, and as they're eating their dinner, just the talking with each other about what they got to do that day, and how meeting the homeowner was the highlight of their day."

The thing that shocked them was how much work still needs to be done, three years after Katrina struck.

"I didn't know it was this bad,” said Abram Pastore of Woodbridge, Virginia. But the student enjoyed the chance to help rebuild.

It’s part of a long-term commitment. Virginia's Impact Project has had volunteers here almost every week, bringing nearly 700 volunteers since last October. Their goal is to build at least 35 houses in Plaquemines Parish within two years.

"We're absolutely serious about it. We're not going to leave until those houses are built," said Williams.

For the volunteers, it may be a short visit, but it is an unforgettable visit. And, for the Plaquemines residents they help, it means a new life.

“Thank God for those people that came and helped, very, very grateful for them," said Leona Bartholomew.