Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Hearthstone high school students lend a helping hand in New Orleans





April 19, 2011

Contributed by the Hearthstone Journalism Class


On April 6, Hearthstone high school students Julian Bauchspies, Sierra Fleming, John Casper and Josh Casper all departed on a service trip to New Orleans, Louisiana with teachers Aron Weisgerber and Elizabeth Shaw, and school director Jane Mullan. The group’s travel expenses were paid for by a grant from the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America. The students were awarded the grant due to their willingness to help in the rebuilding efforts in New Orleans. The city is still in healing from Katrina, the hurricane that devastated the area five and a half years ago. The students raised money for the New Orleans service trip through beeswax candle sales (made by Sierra), bake sales (through the culinary arts class), serving food at the open mic at Hearthstone in March, and by donations from families and friends of Hearthstone School.




The Hearthstone group’s rebuilding efforts included working with the St. Bernard Project, located in the St. Bernard Parish, an area that was under water for six weeks after the levees broke. While working there the students planted trees to help re-establish important eco-systems that were washed away in the flood waters. The students spackled and painted walls, did trim work, caulked, did frame work, and installed doors and windows in the homes of two women who have been out of their homes for five and a half years. They were both examples of people in the parish who had cancelled their flood insurance one year prior to the levees breaking. Many others found themselves without flood insurance after the levees broke for the same reason: FEMA changed the guidelines for residents in the St. Bernard Parish in 2004; the government no longer mandated that all residences of the parish must have flood insurance. Since the parish was a generally low-income neighborhood many residents cancelled their insurance to put food on the table.




While in New Orleans the students also helped rebuild the Waldorf School of New Orleans in their new location, located on higher ground, in the Irish Channel District. The group also had the opportunity to experience real Cajun culture by attending a shrimp and crawfish boil, attending the French Quarter Music Festival, and taking a swamp tour in Slidell, Louisiana.




The final day in New Orleans was spent touring the waterways, marshes, bayous, diversions and levees with a cooperative extension agent from Louisiana State University. On our tour we learned how important the wetlands of Louisiana are to hurricane protection for New Orleans, and how important those wetlands are to the entire country. We learned that the swamps and marshes of coastal Louisiana are among the Nation's most fragile and valuable wetlands, vital not only to recreational and agricultural interests but also the state's more than $1 billion per year seafood industry. Human activities as well as natural processes cause the staggering annual losses of wetlands in Louisiana. It is estimated, by Louisiana State University, that Louisiana loses its wetlands at the rate of one football field per every 38 minutes.



The extension agent also showed us where the levees broke in the lower 9th ward and told us stories of how fast the water rose and what the people in the neighborhood heard and felt when the destruction began. The lower 9th ward was the most heavily devastated area of New Orleans once the floodwaters began to rise. The “X”s still spray-painted on the outside of many of the houses that were not washed away in the flood served as a constant reminder of the devastation that Katrina and her aftermath caused. The “X”s were spray-painted by search and rescue groups to indicate when they checked a house, how many people were found inside each house alive or dead, and which rescue group checked each house.



“You could really feel the unity and the love the people of New Orleans developed since the catastrophic flooding and hurricane in 2005. It is evident in the way the locals greet each other, the songs they sing, and the way they remember those who were lost in the storm’s aftermath,” reflects Hearthstone teacher Elizabeth Shaw.


According to high school student Josh Casper, “It was a great learning experience, and possibly a once in a lifetime opportunity although I have high hopes of returning to New Orleans in the future to help with the rebuilding and experience the culture all over again.”


Amanda Shaw & The Glen David Andrews Band at the FQMF

Great Blue Heron on Swamp Tour in Slidell, LA

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