It has now been nearly seven years since the levees broke and flooded New Orleans. The waters have long since receded and this week, one group of high school students is spending their spring break down in Louisiana to continue the long and arduous process of cleaning up after Hurricane Katrina.
The Morinville Community High School Mission to New Orleans left on Saturday morning for a nine-day journey to provide some long overdue humanitarian relief in the city.
"I'm quite excited to get down there and just get to work," said teacher and chaperone Neil Korotash, showing much enthusiasm with only a few days before the flight. "We've got a lot of really excited kids. We're excited to get to work."
He added that there would likely be a fair bit of self-discovery and extracurricular learning going on as well.
"This is a learning experience: for the students, for the teachers, for everyone. I guess it's more just the life lessons about helping others and seeing different cultures, different parts of the world and different areas that may not be used to the same quality of life that we are."
He qualified that by explaining that even though New Orleans still has a lot of social assistance programs that Haiti and other recent natural disaster areas might not have, it does have the semblance of familiarity and safety that made it an easier choice to send 21 high school students.
"It gives us a safe [location] to be able to bring the students to, to give them the experience that hopefully they'll remember for the rest of their lives … helping others and contributing in a unique way, and learning that empathy – that service mentality – that will serve them well when they come back here so that they can bring that same enthusiasm and that same passion in helping out in Morinville, in our community and the region, and just be better for the experience."
Grade 12 student Erika Veillette said that she has been looking forward to this trip for about a year now, but it also represents both the culmination of a long-held dream and the commencement of a possible career path.
"I've always wanted to help people and I've never gotten the chance to outside of Canada," she began. "It's something I want to pursue in my future, to go down and help rebuild. I thought this would be a great opportunity to start that."
The work detail
The category 5 windstorm in late August 2005 destroyed many thousands of homes and many residents were forced to flee. Not all of them have returned either.
Those who stayed or came back are still trying to deal with the mess. There is much work still to be done, and much help is needed from painting fences to removing debris and rebuilding some structures.
Last year, two separate groups from St. Albert Catholic High and école Secondaire Sainte Marguerite d'Youville sent their own groups down, along with assistance and guidance from a Youth Oblate Ministry. Together, they worked with the New Orleans Rebirth Volunteer Program offered by the city's Center for Ethical Living and Social Justice Renewal. Anyone anywhere can sign up to support local efforts.
The St. Bernard Project, a non-profit, community-based organization, also helped co-ordinate the work projects.
The group raised $45,000 to pay for the trip, each of the 27 participants being responsible to bring in $400. The rest was brought in through fundraising events and different sponsorships. All of that preparation and planning will be worth it, according to Veillette.
"I know we can go down there and make a difference," she stated.
Members of the public who are interested in receiving updates from the group can check out their website at www.mchsmission.com, its Facebook page (search "MCHS Mission Trip 2012"), or @mchsmission on Twitter.
Interesting fact
Neil Korotash was St. Albert's youngest city councillor, first elected in 2001 when he was only 21.
