Red Cross volunteer helps Katrina refugees to wed
Published: September 26, 2005
A couple who fled New Orleans to avoid Hurricane Katrina got married in Wisconsin, with the help of an American Red Cross volunteer.
Jessica Luebke and her fiance, Dahlak Keleta, tied the knot Saturday at the Paddock Lake home of her parents, Tom and Sharon Luebke.
The Red Cross volunteer, Jacklyn VanHeirseele, met the couple as she was interviewing Katrina evacuees in Racine County.
VanHeirseele had recently started a wedding and event-planning business and been ordained in the Universal Life Church, so she helped them make the necessary arrangements and was even able to officiate at the ceremony. She did it as a gift for the couple.
“It’s hard to believe that someone who doesn’t even know you, who never met you before, could do something so kind,” Luebke said. “We are just so lucky considering what so many people went through.”
The couple had planned to be wed at a historic New Orleans mansion before 100 or more people before Katrina hit, but instead held the ceremony before a small group of relatives and friends.
“The most important part is that we’re here together, and we’ve got each other right now,” Keleta said.
VanHeirseele said she was happy to help.
“There are things that come past you, and your eyes are either open to them or they’re not,” she said. “When you’re receptive to what comes to you, life is so much more rewarding.”
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