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RIMS community service volunteers put 'new' into New Orleans

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RIMS community service volunteers put 'new' into New Orleans

More than 100 attendees of this year's Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc.'s conference in New Orleans took part in the society's Community Service Day on Sunday, helping to rebuild and paint five homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina almost 10 years ago.

The risk professionals teamed up with the St. Bernard Project, a Chalmette, Louisiana-based nonprofit that provides resources and help to communities affected by natural disasters that was started by lawyer Zack Rosenburg and teacher Liz McCartney, who moved back to Louisiana from Washington after they saw the devastation caused by the hurricane.

Since its founding in 2006, the St. Bernard Project has built more than 900 houses and benefited from the aid of more than 100,000 volunteers.

The RIMS Community Service Day, sponsored by Zurich North America, saw insurers, risk managers, brokers and others being trained to use saws and climbing ladders to prime and paint houses, among other things.

Helping the project is part of Zurich's commitment to the community, said Dan Riordan, Zurich North America's CEO of Global Corporate, who is based in New York and was himself found up on a ladder painting a house.

He said part of the appeal of the RIMS Community Service Day is that people choose to come and participate – “they decide to come here, they like to come.”

The effects of Hurricane Katrina are still felt across New Orleans almost 10 years later, and the house that Mr. Riordan and his fellow volunteers were painting had not been occupied since the deadly storm.

A desire to help the city recover and to give volunteers a chance to do real work – and even learn new skills – inspired the founders of the St. Bernard Project.

“We saw previously independent, autonomous families living in decrepit conditions,” said Mr. Rosenburg, CEO of the project. He said he and Ms. McCartney knew if they could find a way to get those families home again, they would be able to get back on their feet.

And so the St. Bernard Project was born.

A vital part of the St. Bernard Project, Mr. Rosenburg said, is the disaster and resilience recovery lab, funded by Zurich.

The lab focuses on 10 communities a year across the United States that are at risk of natural disaster and helps small businesses and homeowners take risk management steps to prepare for a catastrophe. It also helps communities recover after a disaster.