My Experiences in New Orleans with the National Relief Network
This past December of 2007, I participated in my first major volunteer trip organized by two enterprising students from my high school TanenbaumCHAT. The goal was to travel to New Orleans to help repair the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina three years earlier. While there, we were able to see first hand the damage to many of the houses and neighborhoods in and around the main city. It made quite an impression because many of the homes were smashed, askew, or even washed away.
The trip was a memorable one. Our group worked at a number of sites during our four day stay, working both to demolish the remains of unsalvageable homes as well as repair the ones that could be saved. We met some of the house owners and many neighbors; everyone was extremely grateful for our help. We felt like we were having a direct positive impact on these people's lives.
Overall I think the trip was definitely a success- a big thanks belongs to the National Relief Network which not only made it possible to volunteer in New Orleans but helped the entire trip to run very smoothly. I would definitely consider going back to volunteer in New Orleans again in future years.
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Thanks for helping to give me this past opportunity to volunteer in New Orleans as well as the many more that will hopefully come in future years. In the picture, that is me working to uproot a tiled floor while we gutted the house for repairs. If we had arrived and begun work on that house even a day later, the house would have been officially prescribed by the government for unscheduled demolition (that happens to every heavily damaged house which does not show signs of being repaired, even if the owner is still around as she was in our case). The owner was very thankful for our work.
