Anthony Mackieis used to playing a superhero on the big screen, but theCaptain Americastarserved as a real-life superhero for some New Orleans residents this month.
Mackie, a Crescent City native, returned to his hometown and partnered with the GAF Community Matters campaign to help rebuild and repair roofs for those in need.
“Just seeing the community’s response, seeing the people in the neighborhood, and finally getting back to some sort of normalcy since the last storm, Ida, which was last year, it has been a great experience,” he said. Sitting below sea level, New Orleans is particularly vulnerable to devastating destruction from storms like Hurricane Ida and Katrina, and Mackie’s home neighborhood of the 7th Ward was hit particularly hard by the latter.
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TheAvengersactor said that GAF, a manufacturing company, isdonating 500 roofs in New Orleansto “help rebuild communities repeatedly hit by natural disasters and left vulnerable to future crises.” Of those, 150 will be in the 7th Ward, assisting seniors on a fixed income.
“Hearing the stories of these people, a lot of them live paycheck to paycheck, and the idea of saving up $10,000 to $12,000 for a new roof is a tall order. To be able to go in and help them with that—elderly people who are living on a fixed income—it really means a lot, man,” Mackie said. “And their appreciation comes from both sides, to be able to do it and to have it done to their homes.”
Mackie Says Some of His Most Cherished Memories Come from Repairing Roofs
Though Mackie is an actor first and foremost, he’s no rookie when it comes to roof repair. TheTwisted Metalstar, 44, is the son of a roofer and first learned to how to fix what he calls “the first stepping stone to everything that covers your home” when he was only 13.
“It was hard work. I still have many emotional scars from being on a roof,” he recalled. “But at the same time, the memories that I’ll have for the rest of my life at that time I spent with my dad, it was great.”
Those memories came rushing back while working in New Orleans, Mackie said.
“…All that came flooding back when I was able to go out with GAF with the Community Matters initiative and put on somebody’s roof. If it’s one shingle, if it’s 100 shingles that you nail in, you never lose that experience. You never lose that emotional connection to those ties you had to a loved one.”
