Ben Landry frames the soup kitchen . (Courtesy photo)

As students and parents from the Harvard Unitarian Church were able to observe first-hand, many communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina two years ago are still rebuilding. To help with the relief effort, nine members of the church’s youth group, as well as three adult companions, recently traveled to the New Orleans area to volunteer with the rebuilding effort.

The group spent a week working in Slidell, a town about 45 minutes outside of New Orleans, coordinating their efforts with the Rotary Club in that community. “The city of Slidell and all the towns along the North Shore … were really hit with the hurricane. The eye of the hurricane went right over Slidell, so they got the tornadoes, huge winds, and the pouring waters,” explained chaperone and Unitarian Church governing board president Betsy Williams.

“I had been shocked to learn that the place was still in ruins. I wanted to be able to do something about that,” chaperone Andy Perkins said. “I think as adults we don’t give teenagers enough work that really matters,” she added: “It was great that there was time to have a lot of fun and do a lot of work as well.”

The scope of the work to be done is overwhelming, Williams said, and money—while a significant factor in rebuilding—is only part of the solution. “The NSDRI (North Shore Disaster Recovery Inc.) really impressed upon us the idea that if Bill Gates gave me a million dollars tomorrow, I could spend it and there is no doubt I could use the money, but I still couldn’t do what needs to be done down here. What needs to be done is people coming down and doing the work,” Williams said.

Planning for the trip started almost two years ago, but finally got moving with help from Jim Nehring of the Littleton Unitarian Universalist Church. “[Nehring] got as far as finding the lodging, the dates we were working, and the program we would be working with,” said sophomore Robby Perkins-High, who was one of seven sophomores who went on the trip. The group was made up of nine high school students and three adult chaperones. Andy Perkins, Betsy Williams, and Dan Williams supervised the group, which consisted of senior Jamie Kendall; sophomores Robby Perkins-High, Emma Williams, Keiron Stoddart, Walker Calkins, Nick Cleary, Tim Brown-Cullinane, and Tom Barstow; and freshman Ben Landry.

The group also coordinated with other teams across the country upon arriving in Louisiana. “There were around 300 people working around our area,” Perkins said. “One team from Oregon had already come down 22 different times to help out. The improvements, as far as we can see, [are coming from] civic and faith-based volunteer groups. There is really no government face at all.”

Upon arrival, the group was split into two teams: one to help rebuild a soup kitchen and the other helping resident Rose Wilson rebuild her home. The work was mostly construction, and the group worked for most of the day, every day. “Our job was to build a new soup kitchen from the foundation up. The previous kitchen had about nine feet of water in it after the storm and was completely destroyed,” Landry said. “The temporary kitchen was about the size of a classroom in school, and had to serve an average of 300 people per day, so it was obviously too small. Our job was to complete as much work as we could on the kitchen so it could get up and running.” Jobs that the youth group were given included installing hurricane strips (metal strips that connect a building to its foundation), insulating the floor, installing windows and doors, and putting up roof trusses, Perkins-High said. The group working at Wilson’s home retiled a bathroom floor, fixed holes in the drywall, and performed other miscellaneous jobs, he said.

In addition to bringing typical work materials and clothing, the group was given hazardous materials clothing by church member Jim Reedy, who works for the Corp of Engineers. “He outfitted us with hazmat suits, respirators, goggles, gloves, and boots in case we encountered any nasty situations in New Orleans,” Landry said, adding that the group also brought cameras to capture the trip on film.

Because of the lack of general housing and hotels, the team stayed in an old limousine garage that had been converted into lodging for relief workers. Although some members of the team were expecting the worst in terms of lodging, conditions were better than expected. “We stayed in an abandoned strip mall,” Perkins said. “There were two big bunk rooms, a kitchen and a living room area, and the parking lot.” Showers were also available to the group, she added with a note of relief.

Overall, Slidell residents were open to relief efforts and committed to returning to their homes. “The people were welcoming and kind and grateful we were there, and determined to rebuild,” Perkins said. “You could see you made a difference, so it wasn’t depressing. The hardships these people faced were one thing piled on top of another.”

Williams was quick to agree with Perkins’s assessment. “Everyone was really happy about the work that they did down there. We felt useful. It really felt like we did good work and really helped these people,” she said. Stoddart was apprehensive about the trip beforehand, he said, thinking that residents might dislike outside help. “But they were surprisingly nice,” he said. “I will never forget Rose Wilson.”

Landry felt the experience had a very positive impact for him and for Katrina’s victims. “We learned that there is a lot of hope for a new life in New Orleans. Many people still cherish life and try as hard as they can to maintain the same life they had before the storm,” he said. “We visited our sister church when we went down and they had us share a story about what we encountered throughout the week and then drop a small pebble into a pool of water,” he added, explaining that this symbolized the ripple effect of the volunteer help in New Orleans. “Even a small pebble like our youth group can create a huge ripple that helps hundreds of people,” he said. “All in all, we had a truly life-changing experience.”