New Orleans was already wrecked the first time I ever laid eyes upon the city.
It was five weeks after hurricane Katrina had decimated the historic city and surrounding Gulf Coast communities. I was there to document humanitarian relief efforts in the hamlet of Lacombe, La., the sister community to my home at the time, Lacombe, Alta.
During two visits to Louisiana that year I saw entire neighbourhoods — most of them poverty stricken even before Katrina — that were decimated by floodwaters, boats torn from their moorings and left in the middle of residential streets. Homes that were left standing teemed with mould often stretching from floor to ceiling.
Despite all those tragic images, the smell of rot is what I remember most. One of the worst I visited — little more than a shack — reeked of damp, mouldy personal artifacts and some odours best left unidentified. The floor was so warped from the water I couldn't venture very far into the building, the wood twisting with each footfall. This hellhole was home to its 66-year-old occupant, a widow named Juanita Batiste who spoke little English and had no other recourse but to live in a place that back in Alberta would have been condemned 10 times over.
Too many homes were — and still are — like Juanita's, as two groups of St. Albert students will eventually find out. Forty-four kids from école Secondaire Sainte Marguerite d'Youville (ESSMY) and St. Albert Catholic High School are bound for New Orleans in February and March, part of a humanitarian mission to help with the never-ending rebuild.
The trip is a long-time dream of Grade 12 ESSMY student Carlee Ryski, who first concocted the idea two years ago. Unfortunately, with several recent natural disasters, including last year's earthquake in Haiti, choosing a location wasn't easy.
"If you look at Haiti and New Orleans, New Orleans has kind of been neglected in a sense," says Ryski, 17. "We are actually pretty excited to go somewhere that some people have forgotten about."
The students will travel with an Oblate Youth Ministry team that has lined up accommodations with the Catholic parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe, an area where 70 per cent of families lost their homes. More than half of those still haven't been able to move back, Ryski says.
Much of the research about the current situation in New Orleans has been left up to Oblate Youth Ministry co-ordinator Doug Kramer who has been in touch with local officials.
New Orleans' population is down 200,000 people compared to levels pre-Katrina five years ago and the city has about 50,000 housing and building projects that are incomplete.
"We knew that having left the media it was not in the spotlight anymore and there was still a need," Kramer says.
Students will help with reconstruction, cleanup and chores like painting fences and even working at a local soup kitchen. They will also learn firsthand what residents went through by talking to groups of seniors and university students.
"No matter what kind of difference we're going to make, we're going to make a difference whether the impact is small or big," Ryski says.
Community support needed
Students from both schools are looking to raise a combined $80,000 to $90,000 to cover travel, accommodation and meal costs. Both schools are planning internal fundraisers, but are also counting on local businesses to step up with a show of support. Postcards with information about the trips will be mailed out over the next two months.
"We need the support of the community," Ryski says. "We're so thankful and we're so blessed to be able to have an opportunity like this and we want everybody to get as excited about it as we are."
While she knows the situation is still dire, it's hard to know exactly what awaits in New Orleans. All the students want to do is help.
"We want to go and we want to be humbled."
That, unfortunately, is a pretty safe bet.
For more information about the trips and donations, visit www.essmymission.com/partners and www.sachsmission.com/partners.
