0:26
Buck Harris: Tuckerton is such a unique community. It's a quaint little town. There's nothing like looking at blue skies, siting out on your deck hearing the seagulls,
0:37
Frank Kowski: The sand, the beach, fishing, crabbing. It was a great place to raise your family.
0:45
Joyce: I lived here all my life. My husband, Sheldon, we bought our house on our first wedding anniversary. It meant everything to us. Even though he was extremely healthy, he caught pneumonia and he died. [0:59] I mean, I was totally devastated. I didn't know what to do. Then the storm hit.
1:06
Frank Kowski: They started talking about the storm. They started warning us, the federal weather indicated that this was gonna be a real bad. High winds, high tides
1:25
Joyce: I could see the water coming up
1:17
Frank Kowski: I stayed up that night. I got my wife, put her in the car, and backed out at the water. That was the last time I saw my house.
1:30
Newscaster: The town of a little more than 3,000 took a body blow. Homes are flattened and completely destroyed.
1:42
Joyce: The day we were able to go into the house and I passed out on the floor. My brother-in-law carried me out and he goes”you're not going back in there anymore.” It was that bad.
1:50
Frank Kowski: My wife cried. We lost pictures of our kids, our family gone. Even now, our hearts are broken.
2:01
Tuckerton, NJ Mayor: We have over 285 homes that have massive destruction
2:04
Buck Harris: After that day was over, my daughter said “Okay dad, it's time for you to have your cry.” It was a traumatic thing. Insurance companies were hell. If your home has been damaged, then you must raise it to standards. The minimum cost of raising homes is $50,000. If you want to start the project, you had to put funds out of your own pocket first. [2:27] FEMA was broken. Not everybody has these thousands of thousands of dollars.
2:31
Joyce: There's not a lot of help out there. You’d think there is, but there isn't.
2:37
Frank Kowski: They sent the money to the mortgage company instead of for me to rebuild. I went back and forth for months. In that process, the looters came in and they went and stole the copper. They took a sledgehammer to my kitchen. Thank God for the Masons.
2:51
Buck Harris: The Scottish Rite came down two weeks after the storm.
2:55
Frank Kowski: They gave a lot of money.
2:57
Buck Harris: A check was handed to you. You put it in the bank, and it was yours.
2:59
Joyce: I wasn't used to getting anything from anyone.
3:03
Buck Harris: Not only did they help Masons, but they helped the community.
3:06
Frank Kowski: It was a very humbling thing for me to get instead of give. Yet they came up alongside of me and said “We’ve got your back.”
3:15
Joyce: A lot of people donate to this fund and they don't know where the money goes. It's stories like mine that are a testament to the power of the Almoner’s Fund.
3:24
Buck Harris: They do it to help others, and that's the greatest thing about this Brotherhood. We're all one.
3:29
Joyce: My name is Joyce. My husband Sheldon was not just a man, he was a Mason.
3:36
Frank Kowski: My name is Frank Kowski. I'm not just a man, I am a Mason.
3:40
Buck Harris: My name is Buck Harris. I'm not just a man, I am a Mason.
Looking to download this video for use in your Valley? Visit this link and click the button "Download" beneath the video to export the video directly to your computer.