By Dyan Hunt

This past April vacation, a group of eighteen Lincoln-Sudbury juniors and seniors went down to New Orleans, Louisiana to help rebuild with Habitat for Humanity. They worked Tuesday through Friday, 9 AM to 3 PM, on a worksite in the Musician’s Village (a Habitat for Humanity project, building a village exclusively for displaced musicians) in the Upper Ninth Ward, one of the hardest hit sections of the city. Alongside volunteers from Habitat, as well as Americorps, the group finished almost the entire foundation of the house.
Despite a six hour delay at Logan Airport the morning of departure, we made it safely down to the Crescent City and arrived at our residence, a church, just after 11 PM. The people at Oak Park Baptist Church were very welcoming, and the Alabama women we stayed with were very interesting (and loud) people. The daily commute to the worksite was often an hour because of morning traffic on and off I-10, which meant early wake up calls for the group, but the work was so rewarding that no one minded the lack of sleep. Navigating the city of New Orleans proved difficult for some of us, but nonetheless, we arrived wherever we needed to be, for the most part, on time.
Trip leader Tom Danko reflects, “What I am most proud of is [that] we went to build houses, but along with that we built something inside each of us deeper and stronger than that horrible storm.”
What really surprised most of our group was the amount of work that is still left to be done. The prevailing sentiment amongst most Americans is that the government is taking care of the rebuilding process, and that New Orleans is well on the way to full recovery. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
As it stands now, Habitat for Humanity is the largest home builder in New Orleans. Larger than every contracting company, every building company, and every government sponsored effort. It is volunteers that are making the biggest difference in rebuilding the parts of the South most damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Trip leader Aimee Castonguay believes that, “the amount of recovery work done has not made a dent in the devastation. So many people go to New Orleans for Jazz Fest or Mardi Gras and give little back. New Orleans needs sweat.”
This being the first year that a group from L-S has gone down to New Orleans, it is really a testament to the determination of student coordinator Eli Kahn-Woods that this trip even got off the ground in the first place. To have it succeed to the level it did is more than anyone could have ever expected. Preparations have already begun for another trip next year. For more information on this year’s trip, along with the current status of New Orleans and how you can help, come to the assembly on Wednesday, May 28 during Block 5.