In the sweltering aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, many rescue personnel were nationally celebrated as heroes. Some volunteers' efforts, though essential to the city's recovery, were waylaid in the media frenzy for visions of hope.
Gina Landerholm, director at Bleitz Funeral Home on the northern edge of Queen Anne, responded to a call for funeral professionals immediately after the disaster. She spent two weeks visiting homes, hospitals and other buildings, recovering victims of the hurricane and relocating their bodies to a holding area, eventually reuniting them with their families.
"I had been watching everything on TV," Landerholm explained, "and thought, if there was something I could do, I had to do it."
After completing her volunteer efforts, Landerholm returned home to another struggle. Service Corporation International, which owns Bleitz, was pressuring the funeral home to remove its antique pipe organ. However, after two years of waging a losing battle, Landerholm and the Bleitz team received some incredible news.
"[The Pipe Organ Foundation] matches organs up with people that need them," explained Bleitz Location Manager Douglas Colwell. "They knew how hard we had fought to keep it, so when I called him and said, 'We are losing our fight,' they told me about this church. I was like, 'You don't know how perfect this is.' Then I went up to Gina and said, 'You're not going to believe this!'"
The Pipe Organ Foundation had decided to relocate the organ to the Blessed Seelos Catholic Church, a prominent monument in New Orleans' historic Ninth Ward.
"I was overwhelmed, just really happy that that's where it was going," said Landerholm. "A piece of Bleitz is going to be permanent there, to comfort people."
The pipe organ was built by M.P. Moller in Maryland, and purchased by the Bleitz family and installed in the building in 1928. It was a distinctive feature for Bleitz, one of Seattle's oldest and most prominent funeral homes. The massive structure took up space in four rooms, and had been played less and less over the past few years.
"People have changed a lot in that they don't really use pipe organ music at funerals," said Colwell. "They bring CDs or iPods, and all kinds of things for music that the person loved, rather than old hymns."
The Blessed Seelos was nearly destroyed in a fire in 2003, and the damage was worsened by the hurricane the following year. Having the Pipe Organ Foundation refurbish and reinstall an organ in their cathedral free of charge has been an integral part of their reconstruction.
The church renovation will be complete in late 2007 or early 2008, and Landerholm hopes to be able to go see its grand opening.
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