NOLA: The Future

A week has gone by and the service trip to New Orleans, LA seems so fresh to those who participated yet becoming so distant as we all return to the routine at Wake Forest University. A new group has probably taken our places amidst the power tools and begun the mudding process, all helping to reach our goal: helping the homeowner move in. As I reflect on the experience in NOLA, I am extremely surprised by the amount of devastation and work still to be done; more importantly, I am surprised by the selflessness of our students and the hope people still have despite the destruction.

My intentions for this trip were two-fold: to gauge the service opportunities students took and how we as university could improve our methods in promoting "Pro Humanitate." These goals were met, but in the process, I gained more in the areas of personal growth, knowledge of the extent of Hurricane Katrina, and community engagement. The people of NOLA continue to rebuild both their homes and lives, with some help from a group of 55 students from Wake Forest University.

Our teams split up into three groups: St. Bernard Project construction, after-school day-care, and elderly care. All three areas in the town of Chalmette, LA needed help simply because there was no one around to do it. In each respective group, we all met with the NOLA community, learning of the aftermath and the effect on individual lives in the community.

The St. Bernard Project team began with insulation and dry-walling, donated by Habitat for Humanity and Home Depot. Supervised by AmeriCorps members, our team set out to surpass the goal for each day. We finished two bedrooms, a living room, and both bathrooms. While few students had construction experience, we all learned quickly through teamwork and guidance from our supervisors. Each day our homeowner would stop by and recount a new story of the days after the hurricane. She pointed in the attic where her husband stayed with their five dogs and, ultimately, punched out the ceiling, climbing onto the roof, finding a drifting boat, and saving neighbors stranded on the rooftops.





In review, our trip proved more than a service opportunity. It gave some students a new venue that they may try for future plans. It gave other students a chance to visit a new locale and interact with a new community. Overall, it give us a chance to build and cultivate relationships between the Wake Forest and NOLA community. My hope is that students will spread the word of the work still waiting to be done in the Gulf communities, but also increase the awareness of service prevalent in our Wake Forest community.

"Do not forget us"

As our week in New Orleans draws to a close, I can't help but dwell on the reality that New Orleans has become a forgotten city. Within this city are people struggling to find the resources and the money to rebuild their lives. In unknown places such as St. Bernard Parish, citizens of this middle class neighborhood are adjusting to asking for help, not giving it. Rather than a hand out, American citizens are asking for a hand up. Hard working people are questioning where they fit in this country. As our attention turns to other parts of this world and other parts of this country, I am finding myself asking, how can we remember New Orleans?

A great example of this is the work done by Zack Rosenberg and Liz McCartney, founders of the St. Bernard Project with which we have been working this week. Prior to Hurricane Katrina Zack was working as a trial lawyer and Liz in non profit education work. Six months after the storm hit, Zack and Liz traveled to the parish to help in the rebuilding work. Expecting to be building up rather than gutting out, they were shocked to see most of the homes had not been touched and the entire parish was practically uninhabited. Upon leaving the parish they asked numerous citizens what they wanted and how they could help them in their efforts to return home. The citizens of the parish gave one simple request, do not forget us. Zack and Liz have headed this desperate plea. They returned home to raise the funds that would allow them to move to the city and start rebuilding homes. On the weekends the pair worked to gut houses in the area. With time they met a homeowner named Frank White who allowed them to fix up his old appliance store to serve as a office and warehouse for their budding project. Today, St. Bernard is a world renowned rebuilding organization that serves as a fine example on what happens when hard working, good people work together to find a solution to a solvable problem. To date they have rebuilt 200 homes in the parish and are working to expand their ingenious rebuilding system to Gentilly, Lakeview, Midcity, and New Orleans East. In January they opened a free mental health clinic adjacent to their offices where clients can come to gain the critical mental health and psychiatric services they so disparately require as they seek to rebuild their lives.

What can we take away from the work of Zack and Liz? I think it can be summed up quite simply. These problems are solvable and we have the capacity right now to do something about it.

. My hope for our group as we return back to Wake is that New Orleans isn't quickly forgotten. This trip should be the start of something in our lives, not the end. How can we empower ourselves and our friends and family to do something about the problems in the world? Daily we are surrounded by the needs of our community, and as citizens of this country and this world we must sense the great urgency to make a difference and start doing so now.

My hope is that the students on this trip spread the truth and the reality of what New Orleans looks like today. I hope each goes home to Wake Forest and become the voice of those we have met here in the parish. Rather than sit on the reality of this community so devastated by the hurricane three and a half years later, students should use the connections, the knowledge, and the relationships they have formed to encourage their peers and family to lend a hand, a heart, and a voice to the people of New Orleans.

NOLA Day 2: Putting up the Foundation

After two days of construction work, filled with frustrations and success, we put a face to the service we are doing. The woman is a young native of Chalmette, Lousiana with two daughters and five dogs. During the storm of Katrina, she evacuated but her husband stayed behind to rescue the dogs and wait out the storm. In the end, he swam around the attic, saving the animals, punching out a hole in the roof, and rescuing nearby neighbors with a neighbor's boat. She comes by cheery, filled with hope for the future. Meeting this courageous woman helped all of us step back and reflect on our own fortunes. Personally, I cannot picture myself feeling lucky that I live in a relatively spacious trailer when I previously owned a two-bedroom home. However, even three and a half years later, such accommodations are almost luxurious when considering the fate of many. Only two doors next to this woman's house lives a man whose life is still far from recovery. Twenty years ago, when he bought his house, he put the deed under his mother's name without knowing the fate that lay ahead. Since his mother's house was also deemed uninhabitable, she did not have enough insurance to cover both houses. Thus, this man has received no form of aid to rebuild his home. Furthermore, to keep the local government from tearing it down due to abandonment, he has moved back onto the land in a very small trailer. Fifteen of our group have been struggling for three days to insulate and dry wall a house, but the thought of one man trying to accomplish all this and much more is truly astonishing. These are only two stories on one street of a large metropolis, but they are representative of many. New Orleans is a unique city where one block is lined with plantation-era mansions and the next holds mainly dilapidated houses, but despite these vast socio-economic discrepancies, they are all united by a disaster much bigger than themselves. The estimated time for a full recovery is 20 to 25 years, but if we continue to remember and support this community, perhaps we can shorten this road to rebuilding.

NOLA Day 1: Katrina Relief and the Youth Movement

As we enter the town of Chalmette, Louisiana, I notice the dilapidated houses and minimal edifices. Before the catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina, over 29,000 structures stood strong in the St. Bernard Parrish; all but 3 were claimed uninhabitable post-Katrina. Pain, heartache, displacement, and death have plagued the historical state of Louisiana. The Federal, state, and local governments continue to fight over recognition and monies for distribution to the communities that lost their homes in Katrina. However, aid continues amidst the economic turmoil plaguing our country and the forgotten need of the people of Louisiana. 55 Wake Forest students have decided to use their time to travel to Louisiana and help restore housing to communities in Louisiana. Through the St. Bernard Project, teams of 5 have dispersed through the community to aid AmeriCorps volunteers in rebuilding houses, but most importantly restoring the community. Though work has been physically and mentally draining, our Demon Deacons are learning the meaning of civic engagement and the tools they can bring back to the Wake Forest community to perpetuate our motto: Pro Humanitate.