 For most Houston residents, the drama surrounding last
year's hurricane Katrina, has become a distant memory. Many Louisiana residents who
moved to Texas, have either moved back home or have transitioned to become
permanant Texas residents.
One hurricane Katrina survivor and her sister, who lost
everything in the wake of the hurricane, ended up in The Woodlands in
some apartments.These two sisters, Kelly and Catina, were assisted by FEMA and by churches in the
area initially but had a difficult time finding employment. When Kelly was in the New Orleans,
Louisiana area, she was working in a hospital which was paying for her to also attend
school, and she was unable to find a similar situation in Spring, or The Woodlands, the 1960 Area or Houston.
She was
depressed and felt helpless and was at a low point in her life when she decided
to contact a local Houston personal trainer to help her get at least part of her
life on track. "I don't know what it was about Melissa's website, but I just
knew if I contacted her, she would help me" said Kelly. Citiflex.com owner Melissa, a Spring resident and a "Houston in home
personal trainer" was contacted by Kelly to see about losing weight. "Kelly had
almost no money and was unemployed and overweight, but her sincerity and burning
desire to succeed really touched me" said Melissa, "so I offered to give her
some complimentary workouts and weight loss supervision as well as one on
one personal training until she found a job."
The Elite Personal Trainer knew
that she could help Kelly lose weight and get toned and that this would improve
her self image and boost her confidence which would then significantly help
with her job hunt. In January of 2006, Kelly, starting at 206 pounds, began a
strenuous workout routine under Melissa's supervision. "I was very impressed by
Kelly's workout ethic" said the Citiflex.com owner, and "she was on time for all
her workouts and pushed herself hard."
Kelly also kept a food journal as
required by her personal trainer and was very disciplined about doing what she
needed to do to improve her eating. Instead of eating ice cream, she learned to
grab a clementine for a snack and she started
drinking lots of water. Plus Citiflex.com was able to convince 24 Hour Fitness to give
Kelly a complimentary membership for a month and a reduced rate after that.
Kelly has been amazingly successful and has lost a total of
thirty pounds in only 2 1/2 months and all her clothes are now baggy. She is a
familiar site at the gym and her happy, outgoing smile is a welcome site to her
Houston buddies.
In addition, Kelly's work status took a change for the better one
day when she and her sister Catina were brainstorming about what to do
about employment. Kelly had wanted to have a chance to make enough
money to live and had been trying to find employment working at a
hospital like she did in Metarie, Louisiana. And her sister Catina, who
had woked at Tulane in New Orleans under Dr. Prockop, world renowned
for his stem cell research, felt like she really wanted to stay here in
Texas and help her sister and herself become financially
independent.
She had always wanted to start her own business and both ladies had been taught
from early childhood to be organized and clean. Their their mom had encouraged
them to take advantage of their housekeeping skills and it was during one of
these discussions, that the idea of "Clean Sweep Professional Maid Services"
came up. The Hurricane may have made a clean sweep of Louisiana and cleaned out
their personal inventory , but they were convinced that they could take this
"lemon" and turn it around to make some "lemonade". They might be swept clean of
material items but they were not swept clean of ingenuity and good work ethic
and motivation. Catina began networking, buying supplies and getting bonded in
preparation for running the business and immediately began to get
referrals.
Kelly and Catina are now excited that their infant business is
growing and successful. "I feel proud of Kelly for what she has done for herself
and proud of us for coming here from Louisiana with nothing and turning our
lives around so we could become contributing members of the community", said
Clean Sweep Professional Maid services owner Catina.
Catina and Kelly are grateful to the FEMA and to
churches in The Woodlands and Spring who helped them financially. Kelly
still plans to lose another 40 pounds and, with her ambition, she will definitly
be successful. |
