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TechnographUI students help clean, rebuild New Orleans
Volunteers willingly spend break gutting houses, picking up debris
By Whitney Blair Wyckoff
Posted: 1/26/07 Section: News
It was dark when Sara Maletta, freshman in FAA, drove into New Orleans with a van full of other college students. Maletta watched the homes she passed on the way to the converted parochial school where she would be staying for a week. The homes were devastated and rundown. Many looked like they hadn't been touched since Hurricane Katrina hit in September 2005.
"It was kind of eerie," Maletta said.
Maletta was one of 12 volunteers from the Service and Justice Outreach group at St. John's Catholic Newman Center who helped with relief efforts for victims of Hurricane Katrina. Her group spent a week of winter break cleaning and gutting houses. Other University students spent their winter break volunteering with relief efforts in New Orleans, including a group of law students, members of Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity and members of NOLA Relief.
The students from St. John's worked with local residents to clean out debris the hurricane left behind in two homes.
"A lot of people are still affected by it - even after 18 months," Maletta said.
What struck Katie Pieper, a second year law student, about her trip was the remaining racial inequality in New Orleans. She said she toured a hospital catering exclusively to lower income minorities that the hurricane destroyed. The federal government had deemed the hospital beyond repair. Yet the private hospital across the street that treats higher income patients has been completely redone.
"It's hard not to come up with conspiracy theories," Pieper said.
Pieper went with students from the University's Law school. She said they got the idea to plan the trip because a few students went over the summer.
"We just knew there was a continuing need," Pieper said.
The group of 17 law students volunteered in different capacities. First year law students gutted houses, while those with more legal background worked with the NAACP or local schools, or provided legal advice to low-income victims.
"It was kind of eerie," Maletta said.
Maletta was one of 12 volunteers from the Service and Justice Outreach group at St. John's Catholic Newman Center who helped with relief efforts for victims of Hurricane Katrina. Her group spent a week of winter break cleaning and gutting houses. Other University students spent their winter break volunteering with relief efforts in New Orleans, including a group of law students, members of Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity and members of NOLA Relief.
The students from St. John's worked with local residents to clean out debris the hurricane left behind in two homes.
"A lot of people are still affected by it - even after 18 months," Maletta said.
What struck Katie Pieper, a second year law student, about her trip was the remaining racial inequality in New Orleans. She said she toured a hospital catering exclusively to lower income minorities that the hurricane destroyed. The federal government had deemed the hospital beyond repair. Yet the private hospital across the street that treats higher income patients has been completely redone.
"It's hard not to come up with conspiracy theories," Pieper said.
Pieper went with students from the University's Law school. She said they got the idea to plan the trip because a few students went over the summer.
"We just knew there was a continuing need," Pieper said.
The group of 17 law students volunteered in different capacities. First year law students gutted houses, while those with more legal background worked with the NAACP or local schools, or provided legal advice to low-income victims.
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Roy Block
posted 1/26/07 @ 12:32 PM CST
As a lifelong resident of the New Orleans area and a U of I parent I cannot tell you how much we appreciate all the efforts of the students and staff of the University of Illinois. (Continued…)
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