(WSBT) Michiana is providing Hope after Katrina, reaching out to the survivors.

A small group of from South Bend took donations down to Alexandria, Louisiana, last week in buses. That’s about three hours north of New Orleans.

They brought back 19 people to stay here in Michiana with local families. NEWS22 and South Bend Tribune reporter Gwen O’Brien and photographer DeMarco Brown went along.

Many at the shelters passed on the opportunity to get on the buses and move here. For others, this group offered them a new beginning, and that was a deal too good to pass up.

The first half of the South Bend mission was a success. Michiana donations for Katrina victims made it to a church shelter in Alexandria.

The next step was to find New Orleans evacuees who’d like to live in Indiana.

“We’re homeowners so eventually we have to go back and assess, see the damage,” George Toney said. “We know we’re not going home no time soon.”

“Okay, so you’re realistic about that, because some people say, ‘I want to go home in four weeks’,” said Kandy Hornor of Elkhart.

George and Brenda Toney wanted out of the shelter. They’d had it with mattresses on the floor and no sense of privacy.

“We’re going to seriously consider this,” George Toney told Hornor. “Okay, we’ll be here,” Hornor responded.

By morning, George Toney was loading his car to follow a big bus to South Bend, 1,000 miles away.