This past spring break, I was not among the many who dug through dresser drawers in search of bathing suits that hadn’t seen the light of day all winter. You couldn’t have found me on the road to Panama City Beach for a week in hopes of forgetting my worries or my name. Instead, I was among the eleven students and two faculty members from my school who went to New Orleans to volunteer for the St. Bernard Project. Click here for a video that explains the work that St. Bernard Project has done.
When Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, 80% of Katrina was under water and the St. Bernard Parish was deemed 100% uninhabitable. Though Hurricane Katrina may be a distant memory in the eyes of everyone else in the world, there are still 6,000 families who owned homes prior to Hurricane Katrina who still have not acquired the resources to rebuild ten years later. These are the people that the St. Bernard Project in New Orleans works to help.
My fellow students who accompanied me on the service trip to volunteer for the St. Bernard Project were Angel Ewing, Courtney Howard, Eric Martinez, Hannah Strike, Karina Donayre, Leilani Jade Pecher, Madeline Headtke, Renisha Gipson, Tori Wynecoop, and Sonya Boykin, student director of our trip. The faculty member who leads the Alternative Spring Break every year at our college is Katie Brunk, the Coordinator of Civic Engagement at Illinois College. The professor who accompanied us on the trip was Craig Steenerson, an Associate Professor of Theatre at Illinois College.
Our week of volunteering for the St. Bernard Project went a little something like this: We would wake up at 6 in the morning, and once everyone in our team was dressed and ready, we would then head out to the opportunity housing build we had been assigned to work on in the 9th ward. Everyday, we would have a set of goals to accomplish. Our main tasks consisted of putting insulation into the home and putting up drywall, which proved to be quite challenging and required a considerable amount of communication and teamwork. The St. Bernard Project assigned us a group leader and we also worked with an Alternative Spring Break group that traveled from Southern Methodist University in Texas. We always were finished with our day’s work in the early afternoon which gave us enough time to volunteer for other organizations later in the day, relax for the evening, or explore the city of New Orleans at night.
Throughout our week of volunteer work, we stayed at Camp Hope, a camp specifically designed for New Orleans volunteers that come into the area to help rebuild the region. It’s not luxurious, but luxury isn’t to be expected or desired when your mission is to help a community in need. Volunteers sleep on bunks, similar to if you were actually at a camp. For those of us who never went to a camp as children, you can imagine your dream is finally a reality, and for everyone else, you can reminisce on those savored childhood memories. The food is incredible. In fact, I would have been satisfied if we ate every meal at the camp. I ate the best french toast I have ever had in my life there. The staff was always kind, there were free washers and dryers, and the bathrooms/showers were nicer than I had anticipated. Plus, it’s 25 dollars a night per volunteer to stay there. What’s not to love?
Overall, this was a very rewarding experience. The next time you want to head out to Panama City Beach for your spring break, I would encourage you to instead consider spending a week at Camp Hope and volunteering with the St. Bernard Project. Not only will it be beneficial to the New Orleans community, it will be a rewarding experience that you will never forget.
Can’t make the trip down to New Orleans to volunteer? You can still contribute to the cause! The St. Bernard project has started a campaign called “Coming Home 2016” which is their attempt to raise $100,000 towards bringing families home. So far, they are roughly halfway to reaching their goal. Below is a diagram demonstrating what the donations go towards. To donate, click here.
