SDSU students seek relief through art for Katrina victims

An SDSU student stands in front of a deteriorated house in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. (Photo Courtesy of College Students for New Orleans)

Miles from the decadence and deviant behavior rampant along Bourbon Street, in the French Quarter and downtown, a second New Orleans exists; neighborhoods struggling - now, more than four years post-Hurricane Katrina - to rebuild and move forward.

The impact of the powerful storm is still evident in the St. Bernard Parish and the Lower Ninth Ward, outlying areas that bore the brunt of Katrina’s wrath.

Flood waters and reminders of the hurricane remain. So, too, do many of the neighborhoods’ longtime residents, who live in federally-issued trailers stationed on their front lawns, keeping watch over their homes and praying for assistance.

And in those neighborhoods, crew of volunteers have responded; notably, a team of San Diego State University students, who forgo the New Orleans nightlife for the opportunity instead to help residents rebuild.

Stephanie Buchanan, 20, Sarah Macapagal, 20, and Maia Neubig, 22, are three of the volunteers with SDSU’s College Students for New Orleans, a three-year-old, student-run organization that works with the nonprofit The St. Bernard Project to gut and renovate homes in the St. Bernard Parish and the Lower Ninth Ward; and with Feeding America, formerly America’s Second Harvest, to box and distribute food at a New Orleans food bank.

Buchanan, Macapagal and Neubig said they were stunned by the condition of St. Bernard and the Ninth Ward, and by what seemed to be overwhelming bureaucratic red tape and miscommunication in the rebuilding process. They said they’ve seen houses in the rebuilding process nearly demolished because of lapses in communication between the city and its residents, and residents have said securing permits to rebuild has been difficult.

“I had no idea it would be so bad. Four years after the hurricane, it is still just devastated,” Neubig said. “… [Downtown is] so lively, there’s so much happening - music and festivals and food; but in the Ninth Ward and St. Bernard, that’s where you see the devastation … where you still see the devastation.”

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Buchanan had very few expectations the first time she traveled to New Orleans with Neubig in June of 2008, and the week-long service trip shattered what few expectations she did have.

“These are hardworking, taxpaying Americans who own their homes, and they can’t get back in them,” Buchanan said.

The student group travels to New Orleans four times a year; during winter and spring breaks, and twice in the summer.

The nonprofit organization The St. Bernard Project, site supervisors and the volunteers strip houses to their frames and begin renovations, mold removal, drywall installation and painting. The volunteers are trained to work quickly and efficiently, with safety in mind. The nonprofit estimates the cost of renovating one home at $10,000, and the work can be completed in four to six weeks.

Manual volunteer labor isn’t ideal for the majority of college students, planning winter, spring and summer vacations, but the SDSU group has had up to 48 students volunteer for the week-long trips.

“You realize, if not you, then who?” Macapagal said.

In the college group’s early days, the volunteers would spend each day working with a new organization - reading to children, distributing food, rebuilding homes.

Students changed the format when they discovered they would be more effective if they focused on one service project each trip. The St. Bernard Project teamed with CSNO to mobilize its volunteers on renovating and rebuilding projects.

To break up the work week, though, the students still take one day during the week-long trip to volunteer with Feeding America.

All the while, Buchanan, Macapagal and Neubig said, the volunteers experience a side of New Orleans most tourists never see. They meet locals, share meals with families, tour the bayou, and hear the stories of the hurricane’s survivors.

While the city’s foundation may have been shaken, the women say New Orleans has kept its Southern hospitality. They say residents of the St. Bernard Parish and the Ninth Ward welcomed them, often cooking for teams of volunteers, or stopping to thank them for their work.

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“They tell us over and over again, ‘We could not do this without you,’” Macapagal said. “That is when you realize how important it is to volunteer your time, and how much of an impact it has on them.”

On Nov. 14 the CSNO will host its fourth “Art Relief: A Creative Road to Recovery,” a silent art auction.

The cost to participate in one of the group’s trips - for airfare, and the week’s lodging, meals and transportation - is $350 per volunteer.

CSNO combats the cost with the art auction. Students and local artists create and donate art work for the silent auction, and proceeds subsidize the volunteers’ costs. The last auction raised more than $6,000 for the volunteers.

Ticket prices for the event are $7 for students and $12 general admission in advance, and $10 for students and $15 general admission at the door. The event will be held at El Centro Cultural de la Raza at 2125 Park Blvd. in Balboa Park from 6-9:30 p.m. on Nov. 14. For more information, visit the group’s Web site

Photos courtesy of College Students for New Orleans. Joseph Peña is the SDNN Lifestyle Editor.

Tags: america's second harvest, art benefit san diego, art relief, Balboa Park events, college students for new orleans, feeding america, lower ninth ward, new orleans, San Diego State University, SDNN, SDSU, st. bernard parish, st. bernard project

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