Students visit New Orleans for charity during break

Spring break is a time for rest, but several dedicated students volunteered their time to build a house for a woman whose home was destroyed in New Orleans.

The second UNM Alternative Spring Break offered students a chance to volunteer and give back to the New Orleans community for five days last week.

UNM teamed up with the St. Bernard Program, a nonprofit organization dedicated to disaster relief, to rebuild destroyed homes in New Orleans that are still in ruins eight years after Hurricane Katrina.

This year the volunteers helped rebuild Pamela Clark’s house by putting up sheetrock, painting walls, and decorating the interior of the home. Lisa Lindquist, the director of this program and one of two faculty sponsors for the trip, said students dedicated themselves to hard work during a time that is normally a break in academic life. She said the reward they find is written on the faces of those they help.

Student Nate Faust-Shucker said the woman whose house the volunteers helped repair was incredibly grateful for the volunteers’ time.

“This house was in a neighborhood surrounded by finished houses but this one was just so bare … it wasn’t fair that her house is not done while everyone else’s is,” he said. “She (the owner of the house) was so emotional and grateful for us to be there to help her out.”

Faust-Shucker said the house was not finished by the time they left, but thanks to the volunteers’ help, the house should be done going through final repairs and be habitable by April 19.

Last year, three UNM students and a graduate intern went to New Orleans. This year, the number of students who went to New Orleans tripled and the volunteers raised $300 from a car-wash fundraiser to donate to the St. Bernard Program.

Faust-Shucker, who went on the trip this year for the second time, said traveling to New Orleans last year made the devastation caused by Katrina a reality.

“It opened my eyes knowing Hurricane Katrina actually happened eight years ago, and the city still has so many problems,” he said. “It was overwhelming to see all the destroyed houses.”
Student Amber Aragon said the volunteers worked about 30 hours during the week.

“When we got back from work, we just ate and went to sleep; we were so tired.”

But Aragon said the trip wasn’t all hard work. When the volunteers weren’t repairing houses, they were immersing themselves in the culture of New Orleans. The itinerary included a haunted-house tour, a voodoo tour, as well as opportunities to shop and eat out at local restaurants.

Students each paid $520 to go on the trip, which included transportation, food and lodging.