SUBMISSION DATE: MARCH 20. 2006

VOLUNTEER: Will Rawley

NOTES: not edited, copy and pasted from attachment

A year ago, if someone told me that I will spend Spring Break 2006 in New Orleans I would have been excited. I would have looked forward to crazy nights on Bourbon Street, quiet nights in Jazz clubs, and waking up at noon everyday. I never could have guessed that my Spring Break in New Orleans would not allow me to wake up later than 8 and my days would be spent tearing down moldy houses. I never thought I would be too tired from my busy days to go out at night. But this was the case.

Me and two buddies, Drew and Daniel, planned on going to New Orleans for Spring Break for about a month before, but didn’t finalize the plans until literally the day before we left. We tried to go through Tulane and help with their projects, but they couldn’t offer us housing. We saw they worked through Relief Spark, which seemed to be a new organization with a one person executive team: Sidney Ray.

We got in contact with Sidney a few days before we left and she helped us a lot with where to stay and what productive activities can fill our days. We stayed in a FEMA tent called Camp Algiers. This place was basically an all expenses paid resort. Three good meals a day, football field, running track, hot showers, nice beds, large screen television, free laundry, basketball gym, weight room, ping pong table, and interesting people made our stay in Camp Algiers a lot of fun and very inexpensive. Granted we worked all day and that was our “price” for staying there, but we went to New Orleans with the intent of helping, so Camp Algiers made the trip a lot nicer and a lot easier.

We got to New Orleans on Saturday, March 4 rd and were greeted by Sidney at the camp. She drove us around New Orleans in her Escalade with her dog, Chica Morica. She showed us the French Quarter first, and then took us down to the Lower Ninth Ward. All the pictures and videos I saw on TV couldn’t accurately portray the massive level of destruction. Houses were in the middle of roads; cement steps would lead up to nothing as their houses were moved blocks away from their original locations; upside down cars were literally on tops of roofs, which isn’t that absurd being that the roofs stood two feet above the ground. We left the Ninth Ward and went back to camp. We got a nice dinner, played some football, and went to bed early so we get up and start work on Sunday.

Our first full day we drove around and looked at a couple houses that were works in progress, and then went to the Relief Spark headquarters and organized that place a little bit. We spent the day with Emilie, a freshman at Yale that came to down New Orleans on her own. We were quick to befriend her and I have no doubt that we will keep in touch after Spring Break.

On Monday, we worked with ACORN, another volunteer service group. This group has a political mission that basically says they are against bulldozing the houses at all costs. We went to a part of New Orleans that was hit pretty hard, and about twenty of us gutted a house. It was fun and during the time I felt like I was helping someone come home. When we were done we all sat outside and looked around the neighborhood and realized that that area would probably get bulldozed in the next month regardless of how many houses were gutted. Not only that, but I also think it should get bulldozed. The houses were in such bad shape and six months after the hurricane no one has tried to move back into that neighborhood. The government will pay each person for their house, and then the family can take the money and relocate. Not to mention that fact that the area is still below sea level and flooding will always be a very possible occurrence.

We talked to Sidney about our differences with ACORN, and she gave us a different project for the rest of the week. We went into St. Bernard parish and gutted a house in a neighborhood that was in much better shape. We had to take out all the personal belongings and we saved anything that we thought might have sentimental value. Only Relief Spark saves sentimental belongings, which I think is a very good thing. Even if the house does get bulldozed at least the families can have salvaged photo albums, trophies, or journals. The house ended up being a three day project. On the second and the third day the owner of the house, who is a High School English Teacher, came by and talked to us or a bit. I found it really rewarding to meet the person we were helping. It reminded me that no one person can clean up all of New Orleans, but everybody can positively affect the lives of those who suffered from Katrina.

There was about fifteen of us that formed to become a pretty tight nit team. People from Montana, California, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Texas, Michigan, Illinois, and numerous other states all came together to help one family in Louisiana. After taking out rotten refrigerators, moldy clothes, and anything could increase to the horrible smell of the house, we began taking down dry walls, shelves, and anything else that wasn’t part of the house’s basic structure. We worked from 9-4 each day. My favorite part of the day was the lunch breaks. Everyone would take off their Tyvek suits, working boots, goggles, and masks, find a fence to lean against, and sit around and talk while eating the lunch that Camp Algiers provided us. We finally finished the house on Thursday. Me and my buddies had a big night in the French Quarter that night and then took Friday off so we could walk around New Orleans. We left New Orleans Friday evening.

All in all, we had a great Spring Break. It was very, very inexpensive, we went out in New Orleans a couple nights, and most importantly, we helped people in need. I think anyone who has a ability to do so should go down to New Orleans sometime soon so they can see the level of destruction for themselves and I guarantee once they see how bad it is, they will have no choice but to help out in any way possible.