It's been almost a year and a half since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the southeastern United States. Churning through Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Alabama, cities like New Orleans and Biloxi were close to being decimated. Over 1,800 people lost their lives in the storms' paths.
And now, University of Michigan-Dearborn students are taking clean up and restoration efforts into their own hands.
Twelve people from the Detroit area will travel to Lake Charles, Louisiana, on March 10-17 for an Alternative Spring Break (ASB), reaching out to the affected community and helping to piece together the ruins left from two of the nation's deadliest natural disasters. Sponsored by United Way and thinkMTV, participants will be a part of Storm Corps 2007: three crews of over 100 volunteers each that will descend upon Louisiana over three separate weeks in March.
Detroit volunteers are in the second group, including UM-D students Adam Harris, Kawthar Ali, Ryan Schreiber, Kristen Lewis, Terry Kowalczyk and Natalie Brookins.
The storms caused over $93 billion in damage, and physical aid, monetary and supply donations are still needed. During the week, volunteers will be doing everything from removing debris to building houses to planting gardens - if it's helpful to the community, Storm Corps will do it.
Angela Walker, volunteer program associate for United Way of Southeastern Michigan (UWSEM), helped coordinate the efforts to send the students to the coast. Walker said she knew as a young girl that she wanted to make a difference. When representatives from United Way of America contacted her about recruiting young adults for ASB in Lake Charles, she jumped at the chance. "I've always wanted to do something like this," she said. "It's at the core of what I believe."
Through United Way, Walker was also part of the committee responsible for selecting the volunteers for ASB out of the 40 who applied.
UM-D junior Adam Harris was among those chosen. "I thought it'd be good to help people out," he said of his reasons for applying. "I want to involve myself in the community."
Harris, like the others, was selected based previous community service and organization affiliation. Harris is on the UM-D basketball team and has worked with children at basketball camp and his mother's day care, in addition to doing service activities through his church.
One of the other criterion was the essay question on the application. According to Walker, it asked applicants to describe a current problem or issue in their community and how they would solve it.
To recruit people, Walker used a variety of methods, including coordinating with local schools and universities. One such school was UM-D, where she was connected with Student Activities Coordinator Randy Dillard.
Dillard, along with Walker, Brian Sawyer, an executive for the Target Corporation, and Kira Putt, who also works for United Way, will be going along as team leaders. They will be responsible for 10 to 12 volunteers each. The teams will be made up randomly of volunteers from all over the nation so that the young adults will interact with people outside of their social circles.
Besides making sure that all volunteers in their group are safe, team leaders will facilitate discussions of their work. "It's about making sure the young adults are getting the most out of their experience," Dillard said.
UM-D senior Kawthar Ali, who works with the UM-D organization Volunteer Dearborn, knows all about making the most of her community service.
When she heard about Katrina, Ali used her job at the university's Child Development Center to work with kids to help with the restoration effort. However, she said she always felt that her efforts were not enough, which is why she decided to join Storm Corps.
"I want to do something about it instead of just watching it on the news," Ali said.
She also plans to bring her experiences back to the children she works with in order to inspire them to volunteer.
When they get back from Louisiana, Walker and United Way plan to keep the students involved in service work in their communities. She also wants input on how to get even more young adults involved locally. "We're looking at engaging even more college students and reaching out to the young adult and university community," she said.
In the near future, United Way will conduct round tables with the students as well as advertise through MySpace and Facebook. "We hope to build a culture of young adults who volunteer," said Walker.
Dillard also plans to keep United Way in UM-D's future, working in the coming years to send more of the school's students on these trips. The other push is for continued school funding of the trips. This year, transportation to Lake Charles has been paid for by UM-D, in partnership with Volunteer Dearborn. All other costs will be covered by United Way.
Dillard says that this partnership is important to UM-D because it ties service projects to classroom learning. "It's something that fits this campus," said Dillard. "[ASB] is complementing the academic experience."
"They may not remember their chemistry test they take this semester," Dillard said, "but they're going to remember their week in Louisiana."
The students who are going, however, are more focused on what they are giving to the Louisiana communities than what the experience will do for them. "I hope they get more from me than I get from them," said Ali.
To get involved with United Way, contact Angela Walker at (313) 226-9450 or at angela.walker@uwsem.org.
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Well, the count down has begun. We are almost a week before Angela and I head down to Lake Charles. I am so excited about getting down there and getting to work that some days that is all that I can think about. That's one reason I really like the Blogging so I can get my feelings out and move on with the rest of my day:) I have a hard time expressing most and least excitement for this trip. I know that I am not looking forward to being sweaty and the bugs. But, I know that those feelings will be trumped with all the great people taking the time to go down to Lake Charles.
