RHINO

Camp RHINO

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Program History

RHINO was founded in September 2005, three weeks after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast and floodwaters ravaged the city of New Orleans. Senior Pastor Don Frampton and then associate pastor Paul Seelman, along with several dedicated lay people, knew God had a special calling for St Charles Presbyterian Church.

The first RHINO group converted the church’s general education building (known as the Land Building) into a dormitory for future volunteers. They also helped staff a food and clothing bank which operated out of the narthex. Soon groups were engaged in gutting homes throughout the city. RHINOs gutted over 200 homes before the program turned its attention to new construction.

In 2006, RHINO volunteers began working with Habitat for Humanity in Musicians’ Village. Volunteers split their time between tearing down what was devastated and decaying in the aftermath of the storm and building new structures to help repopulate the Upper 9th Ward. In 2007, RHINO began partnering with Habitat on work in the Pensiontown neighborhood. The first project was a 14-home build on an abandoned street called Ferry Place. After two-and-a-half years, 14 families were able to call houses on Ferry Place home.

In May 2010, volunteers began building a home at the corner of Hickory and Leonidas, just a few blocks away from Ferry Place. After our summer hiatus, we built another home on Green St, within sight of the house on Hickory. Several more properties will be developed in the Pensiontown neighborhood throughout 2011 and into 2012. We look forward to seeing God transform this neighborhood through the work of our more than 5,000 dedicated volunteers and generous donors.