2008 Service Trip to New Orleans

I was in the City Park group today (the group Jermyn wasn’t in) and today we headed to the New Orleans Botanical Garden. We were teamed with a rather large group; Emory, High Point, and Salem State (Mass., not to be confused with our neighbors in Winston-Salem) were all represented at the gardens today.

Today was definitely a day where patience was essential. After getting a little lost on the way to the gardens and not having a good feel of the work that we were stepping into, we were greeted to the task of weeding the garden. It seemed a little trivial at first, but after a speech from the coordinator of volunteers for the city park system, the task was painted in a new light.

Lisa (the coordinator) explained while this work seemed little and insignificant, to the people of the area that live in the area, these little tasks could make the difference of the world. She also mentioned how, while there was more glamorous work (gutting houses), it was the little work that had to be done to make the community thrive altogether and the resources simply weren’t always available to have all the volunteers painting or rebuilding a house. So for the rest of the day, we worked on cleaning out weeds from the gardens, working with the other schools in a surprisingly somewhat organized system.

Overall, the experience definitely reminded me to look at the overall picture. Is my job to do whatever work that is personally pleasing at the end of the day or is it to do the work, even if it seems little, that helps out the community the most with the means we have?

It’s about 9:40 a.m. and we are very lost trying to get to St. Bernard’s Community Center, but thanks to the city-wide internet we are able to blog from the car! The irony that we are blogging with city-wide Internet and driving past boarded-up houses resonates very deeply with the group and reminds us why we came here. We have been told that much progress has been made, but there is clearly still a lot of work to be done. It is quite amazing as we drive towards the St. Bernard’s Community Center that we are passing seamlessly through neighborhoods with huge new houses and immediately into neighborhoods with houses still falling apart and streets closed off where families no longer live.We are now waiting in the line to take the ferry across the levee and it’s hard to imagine that these streets and houses around us must have been completely under water during Katrina. So far, it has been great getting to know the city, and now, we are all very excited to do the work that we came down to do.(The people in this group includes Evan Raleigh, Matt Higgins, Katie Gomez, Katharine Wesley, Devin Cowens, Amy Bachman, Andrea Davis. The others are helping clean the City Park.)

So it’s 1:41 a.m. and we are finally here. Let me say, today has been rather interesting. We left this morning at 5:54 a.m. and I slept until we reached Hogansville, Georgia. I was supposed to be the navigator helping the driver, but I didn’t do too well at that task. We left Hogansville and once again I slept until we reached Mobile, Alabama. During our stop in Alabama I was informed that I missed the snow in Atlanta and all of the other beautiful scenery. After our pit-stop in Mobile, I took my turn in the drivers seat and drove until we reached New Orleans. The drive into New Orleans made me a bit nervous because we drove for several miles on a bridge surrounded by nothing but water. I wanted to close my eyes but unfortunately I was driving.Once inside the city limits we became a little lost but after about an hour of touring New Orleans, we finally found what will be our home for the week. We didn’t have much time to look at our place , but we did claim our air mattresses. From there we were off to dinner. During dinner we learned about the different schools in attendance and about what we will be doing during the week.Now we are at home and although I have slept the entire day, I am extremely tired.

It is 12:45 pm on the day before our group leaves for New Orleans. This week has been incredibly hectic, what with midterms and papers taking over every bit of spare time. Yet, through all of the paper-writing, studying, and sleep-deprivation, there has been one thing keeping me going— the anticipation and excitement of going to New Orleans! I have been looking forward to this trip since the day I found out about it and decided to apply. As an active member in Amnesty International, H.O.P.E., and Swim Club, I am fairly involved on campus and in the Wake Forest community. Yet, I wanted to do more and serve other areas of the country.

When Katrina hit in August 2005, I remember the news being inundated with pictures and stories of the destruction brought to New Orleans, of people having to leave their now demolished homes and move to foreign areas of the country. The images were powerful, and they drove me to want to help. I knew that I wanted to go down to New Orleans and be a part of the relief effort, but until now I had not had the opportunity. I think Amy said it perfectly: even though it has been three years since Katrina hit and the relief efforts are no longer on the news, this does not mean that all is well. Yes, much progress has been made, but there is still plenty of relief needed in New Orleans.

I cannot begin to describe how excited and anxious I am to get down there. I really do not know what to expect, but I hope that whatever I encounter will give me a new perspective and that I will gain SOMETHING out of the experience. Sometimes I feel that college students forget that there is a world outside of their campus (I call this the college “bubble”) and I really hope that our group can bring back our experiences from New Orleans and share them with the Wake Forest community and this blog is a great start!

Tonight, we are going out to dinner as a group in order to get to know each other a little bit better before the 12 hour car ride tomorrow. It seems like an amazing group, and I can’t wait to meet them in a more casual setting than our debriefing meetings! I anticipate this upcoming week as being one of the most unforgettable, life-changing experiences that I will ever have.

I knew that I wanted this spring break to be different. Instead of going to the beach or going home to relax and focus on myself, I really wanted to get outside my comfort zone and do something for someone else. During the school semester I love to volunteer and it’s a great feeling to get off campus and help out in the community. As I researched different types of service trips, I found the Wake Alternative Break program. I connected with Devin and found out she was trying to put together a trip to New Orleans. It was exactly what I had in mind!

Having never been to New Orleans before, I was relieved to find out Devin had family there and was personally connected to the cause. We got together and traded ideas of what we wanted to do and decided to go through the program Relief Spark. After only a little advertisement of our trip around campus through flyers and e-mails, we were overwhelmed with the number of student applicants, and increased our initial group of 10 to 15.

We got a great group of people together. I can’t believe it’s already here and we’re leaving tomorrow. I know we’re all really excited about getting down there and getting started, and hopefully we’ll make it through the 12 hour drive!

My name is Amy Bachman, and I’m a sophomore at Wake Forest. I had heard about the Wake Alternative Break trips as a freshmen but didn’t really know too much about them, but then as I got involved with Volunteer Service Corps this past year I learned about the planning process. I heard about the New Orleans trip that Devin was planning since we’re both involved in the Corps.

I have never been to New Orleans before and always wanted to go. When Katrina hit, I really wanted to go down there to help out, but I just never got the chance. Like everyone else I was glued to the TV watching the events unfold. I did what I could to donate money and organize fund raisers at my school, but I still felt that without going there I was not doing enough. Two summers ago my church went on a mission trip to the Gulf Coast region, but because of a previous family conflict, I could not go. I was really upset as I have loved the 3 mission trips I had been on with them in the past.

I feel though that going now, nearly 3 years after the hurricane hit, is just as significant as going there in the weeks following. Although the need may not be as urgent or critical, there is still a need. The problem is not gone. It is just not on the news anymore. America and the world has effectively moved on. And I think this is awful but so typical of our society. There’s a new tragedy every day and the old ones get forgotten. The victims of Hurricane Katrina are still suffering and I am so glad that I have gotten this chance to do SOMETHING, however small it may be.

I truly do not know what to really expect as I have never been there nor have I been to an area recently affected by a major disaster. I’ve been abroad twice to do service and I am really excited to be staying in the United States. Because as much need as there is other countries and as much of a passion as I have for reaching out to that need, the need in my own country is not something I can ignore and I feel like it is something I forget about. I want to go on this trip to remember this need and finally make my contribution to New Orleans after all this time.

Personal experience is one of the best motivations for wanting to make sense of the world. As I take time to prepare for my role as adviser, I find this idea very fitting to describe the great potential and inherent challenges of my responsibility. I see my function as one that will guide students in the application of their newly found skills, attitudes, and theories without defining this meaning for them. I am mindful that meaning is on-going and it reveals itself in multiple ways. I am excited to connect with a diverse group of students who may become fragile and passionate toward what they encounter.

The two student leaders and I have worked hard to address expectations about our upcoming week. We believe that we must start by erasing our own agenda and recognize that, because we are working with a grass roots organization, we need to be open to what the specific need is when we arrive. From past service experiences, I recognize that someone can have the best intentions to serve but not effectively match a need. We need to value the voice of this community as our first “assignment” and observe, listen, and be flexible upon arrival. In addition to our actual ability to create a small positive impact, I have also spent time considering the ways we can share and connect this experience back to the campus community and local Winston-Salem area. Blogging our experience will be a unique way to enhance student learning as we address many important questions and hope to generate meaningful dialogue and informed action among Wake Forest students.

Katharine and I got together, discussed ideas for the trip, and advertised to attract some worthy participants. We also chose a staff adviser, Jenn Baron, who is the coordinator of Campus Kitchen here on campus. Together, the three of us determined the criteria in choosing our participants:

• What is your knowledge of New Orleans before and after the disaster?
• Why do you feel the need to become personally connected with it?
• What are some ways you could share this experience with Wake Forest, Winston-Salem, and the local area?
• What are some effective ways to share our story?
• Are you serious enough about this trip to come even if you were in a group of students you didn’t know?

The response was extraordinary. We received 40 applications and only had 15 spots available, making the decision process extremely hard (a total of 18 participants). We interviewed certain applicants in hopes of obtaining more information about why they wanted to get involved .

We made final decisions on applicants on Thursday, February 21st. and held our first meeting on Monday, February 25th. During the first meeting, we introduced ourselves and then read some information on Katrina. We also asked if anyone had been to New Orleans, and no one has been except for myself and our staff advisor, Jenn Baron.

We signed forms, answered any questions and/or concerns. At the next meeting, we are planning some group activities to get to know each other better, lay down some ground rules for the trip, provide a tentative schedule, and put together a travel list.

I first heard about Wake Alternative Break (WAB) through Volunteer Service Corps where I am a member of the advisory board. I heard that they were in the process of deciding on trip locations and New Orleans was one of the places that had been mentioned. I approached the WAB trip coordinator and asked her if I could head up the trip. She agreed, saying that I was free to do what I wanted with it, since the trip was a relatively new one.

I have personal ties to the city in that my mom is from there, and half of my family was affected by the Hurricane. I was in school while Katrina was going on and couldn’t really do much because of it. My mom kept me updated daily about our family to let me know what was going on and if everyone was okay. In deciding to lead this service trip, I saw it as an opportunity to not only actively get involved to rebuild a city that was once so unique and culturally diverse, but to also share my passion for this city and passion to impact lives with other people over Spring Break.

I contacted Relief Spark (the organization that our group will be working with in New Orleans), I was contacted by a girl named Katharine Wesley who also wanted to help out. I agreed, knowing that leading a trip like this would be daunting task for just one person to take on.