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July 23, 2007 - The Times-Picayune
Summer Jobs
By Daniel Monteverde
They could just as easily do what young people typically do during their precious summer free time: work various odd or part-time jobs, lounge around a beach or do nothing at all.
But for thousands of young people from across the country - in a few cases, other countries - this summer has been different.
Despite tales of thick, suffocating summer heat and entire neighborhoods still scarred with floodlines and wrecked seemingly beyond repair, young people continue to flock to New Orleans. They come not to revel in the neon glow of Bourbon Street, but to continue the cleanup nearly two years after Hurricane Katrina.
Many of the young volunteers have never been to the city and team up with local organizations, such as the well-established Catholic Charities or the newer Beacon of Hope Resource Center, to fill the voids in neighborhoods where the need for help remains great.
On a recent afternoon, a group of high school students from Westlake, a town just outside Lake Charles, spent part of their day in Mid-City, hand scraping old paint from the porch of a white shotgun double and applying a fresh coat to the inside walls. Even though the house is raised about 3 feet, a waterline remains about 2 feet high on the screen door.
"Something as simple as a fresh coat of paint can do so much," said Sam Turner, 16, who was in town to work with other young members of his church, First Baptist Church of Westlake.
The homeowner, Chareen Black, 41, said the volunteers have made a major contribution.
"Imagine without the volunteers - the house would still be in disarray, and I can't do it myself," said Black, who was welcoming a second group of volunteers to her home. "It's been a big help, a huge blessing."
Having just returned from living in exile in Pearland, Texas, Black is taking care of her ailing mother while holding down a full-time job with the Recovery School District. She's also searching for a reliable contractor to get her home of seven years back into habitable condition.
"It's really, really hard and exhausting, but it's really rewarding," said AmyRose Tomlinson, 23, a recent graduate of Southwest Baptist University and a native of St. Louis.
Tomlinson, who was working with the Westlake volunteers, is spending her summer in the city working with MissionLab, a program the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary sponsors.
By early August, about 2,300 young people from across the country, and a volunteer from France, will have taken part in the program, said Rob Wilton, director of students for MissionLab. The program offers the young volunteers weeklong experiences with the opportunity to do everything from child care to lawn care. About 200 young people a week are taking part, Wilton said.
Brett Thompson, 17, was in that number. He spent a day gutting an eastern New Orleans home that hadn't been touched since the floodwaters drained. Despite the heat and dirty work involved, Thompson said his first visit to the city was worth it. Otherwise, he'd be doing "absolutely nothing" this summer.
The Frederick, Md., high school student said even with the distractions New Orleans has to offer, an abundance of food and entertainment, it's the combination of faith and work that brings a deeper meaning to his trip.
"The main point is to spread the word of God and to clean the city," Thompson said.
Thirty-one students from the First Baptist Church of Frederick joined Thompson at the site where a trash pile soon grew on the curb.
According to Kevin Fitzpatrick, director of volunteer housing with Catholic Charities' Operation Helping Hands, faith-based groups account for the majority of the young people coming to the city to assist with the recovery effort.
By summer's end, Fitzpatrick expects a good number of students to gut houses and mow lawns with Catholic Charities. He said about 80 to 100 students a week are coming to town to volunteer with Catholic Charities, and by summer's end about 1,000 students will have volunteered, gutting houses and mowing overgrown yards. Some volunteers have come from as far away as Taiwan.
Word of mouth and the Internet continually get the message out that the New Orleans area still needs a lot of help, Fitzpatrick said.
He said the number of working bodies drops a little in the summer compared to breaks during the academic year, which he attributes to several factors, such as summer schedules, the city's weather and because it's hurricane season.
Yet he said several students who previously volunteered during school breaks have returned and sometimes bring friends with them.
"People continue to come in a steady flow, even in the summer months," he said.
Fitzpatrick said volunteers are "overwhelmed" and "shocked" at the pace of recovery. They return home ambassadors for New Orleans.
"They tell people back home that it's not what's being reported on the media," Fitzpatrick said, referring to conflicting reports of the city's recovery in the national media.
While there are some organizations that may be short of a few more volunteers than would be ideal, others are bursting with volunteers eager to work.
The number of students and young people volunteering during the summer hasn't dropped from the same time frame last year, and it doesn't appear it will be in the coming weeks and months, said Liz Widener, director of volunteers for the Beacon of Hope Resource Center in Lakeview.
"I'm booked solid through July and to the second week of August," Widener said. In that time, volunteers will do everything from maintain the area's neutral grounds to sprucing up entire blocks.
In the brutal heat of a recent morning, the sun already bearing down by 10 a.m., nearly four dozen young people from the First Baptist Church of Denham Springs and Evangelical United Methodist Church in Racine, Wis., worked on 39th Street between Fleur de Lis and Bellaire drives, near the site of the 17th Street Canal breach.
Weeds that towered over the tallest of the volunteers tumbled as the group tackled two overgrown, vacant lots. Some young volunteers dragged the debris to the curb while others came behind with lawnmowers and other lawn equipment to finish the job.
With a weedwhacker in hand, Josh Henderson, 14, said traveling around the city for the first time was "an eye-opening experience."
Seeing the devastated Lower 9th Ward provided extra motivation, he said. "Once we saw that, I wanted to get started."
When he returns to Wisconsin, he said, he'll deliver a simple message to friends and family about New Orleans: "They still need our help. And even though they've lost so much, they're still wonderful people."
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