More than a year after Katrina ravaged New Orleans, neighborhoods like St. Bernard's Parish, just east of the city, are still trying to rebuild. Twenty-two Union College students, accompanied by two faculty members, departed Sunday, Dec. 3 for a second visit to the devastation as part of Habitat for Humanity's clean up and renovation project.
Camp Hope, a renovated elementary school in the Parish, is being used as a dorm and staging area for the more than 9,000 volunteers who have passed through to help. The camp is staffed almost entirely by volunteers, a large constituency from AmeriCorps of South Carolina.
Union's group includes seven young men and 15 young women who are charged with documenting and recording their work in the hopes of producing a core of students who will continue the efforts each year. Accompanying the students are Molly S. MacElroy, assistant director of Residential Life; Janet P. Grigsby, visiting associate professor of Sociology; and Gribsby's 23-year-old son, Matthew. Students Libby Johnson '08 and Meagan Keenan '09 are volunteering for their second time.
Johnson's trip is a peer ministry project arranged through Union Campus Protestant Minister and Interfaith Chaplain Viki J. Brooks-McDonald, who attended last year and helped organize this year's trip. Brooks-McDonald met with Johnson weekly throughout the fall term to reflect, theologically, about what the experience would mean.
“Last year's trip inspired students to change their major and their life direction,” said Brooks-McDonald. “There's something about being immersed in the culture and doing service simultaneously that profoundly affects people.”
The week-long schedule includes working in the St. Bernard's Recovery Project on Monday, with the remainder of the week dedicated to the Habitat's Musician Village, a new housing project for displaced musicians. The Village is the brainchild of Harry Connick Jr. and prominent jazz artists the Marsalis brothers, and when completed, it will include a music center named for the Marsalis family patriarch, pianist Ellis Marsalis.
The $12,000 funding for the Union trip was provided by the same anonymous Union alumnus who funded last year's efforts. Lew Dubow, father of Risa Dubow '07, donated safety goggles, masks, gloves and other essential equipment. Dubow's NYC-based hardware supply company donated equipment after 9/11, and he was eager to contribute to the Union effort.
Brooks-McDonald said she hopes this is an ongoing College effort. “Students can benefit from both academic and service opportunities in New Orleans and elsewhere.”