Photos of Our Week

This week was such a blessing leaving each of us with fine memories of New Orleans, our experiences here, and about 18 new friends!

Our crew overlooking Lake Pontchartrain

Breakfast with the whole crew, made by the boys

The girls all together in Audubon Park

The Saint Charles Line Streetcars

Some new houses funded by Brad Pitt in the Lower Ninth Ward

Our view of the Po-boy festival on Sunday

Jackson Square and the local artists in the French Quarter

Last night!

Hello Everyone!

Greetings from our last night in NOLA!  Today offered the group many opportunities: time to wrap up our unfinished products, look back on our progress from last year, learn about the physics of levees,  cement our status as a team of 19 students who came together over the past 5 days, and to most importantly reflect on the work we've accomplished during our time here.

It was truly a great day!  The group at Elysian Fields got a surprise visit from Miss Mary, the homeowner who we are doing repairs for.  It was a wonderful opportunity and we were very blessed to meet her and here her story.  She is a very special lady who worked incredibly hard to get back into her house, and we can't wait for it to happen!  Hopefully by Christmas or soon after?  It gave each of us the chance to connect and hear first-hand the very personal and often emotional stories from a homeowner who experienced Katrina and its devastating aftermath.  Below is a picture of my group with Miss Mary!

We also wrapped up some loose-ends at the house.  The upstairs hardwood floor that the team had been installing for the past 5 days got almost to the point of completion!  Also, the caulking and painting on both the interior and exterior were finished and a ton of window-scraping was officially over!  All the jobs will hopefully be huge time-savers for Project Homecoming, so they can focus on other essential jobs to get Miss Mary back home faster.

The day ended with a great group dinner where each of us explained our highs and lows from the day and the week.  The group loved getting to know each other better and also learning a ton of new skills during the trip.  We also got a great mini-lesson from our physics professor Dyan, who took time and a demonstration to explain why and how the levees were built and ultimately failed.  It was so fascinating!

It was a truly incredible week, and one that I am blessed to have done twice now.  I'm sad I won't be back with the group next year but I know I will always cherish the memories and connections I made here. Well that's it for now, we'll get back to you once we're home!

Much love!
Brian L. :)

Mission and Adventure

Hi everyone!
      Yesterday, we worked with the New Orleans Mission. We loaded up the vans with bagged lunches, vitamin water, applesauce, and water bottles and went out to do a "mobile food drive." Volunteers and directors from the city mission came with us and brought our vans to certain streets downtown that unfortunately had several homeless people residing there. As a team, we got out of our vans, prayed for the people around us, and went out and served these struggling residents. We literally walked up to homeless men and women and gave them food and water.
      The neat thing about this experience was the fact that it was mobile. It would have been much different if we simply set up a station on the street and the people came to us. However, we went to them, saw how and where they were living, and were able to bring a smile to their faces. These people that are struggling to live off the streets were so grateful for our kindness and made it known that we were helping them. There is nothing more real than this.

 
    This was an experience that our team will never forget. Words simply cannot describe what an incredible feeling we had after making a small difference in their lives. People need to realize that life is truly a blessing and we must be thankful for everything we have. Our eyes were open to a whole new world and environment that only people who see it first-hand can understand. This mobile mission was such a touching experience and one our NOLA 2012 team will always cherish.
   Later in the day, we went to the French Quarter and grabbed some dinner. Afterwards, our group was able to split up and explore the different aspects of the French Quarter, such as the famous Bourbon Street. There were many creole-creation foods that were handed out to show the influence of the French culture on the city of New Orleans. We bought souvenirs and tried the classic beignets at the historical Cafe du Monde. We got to experience the authentic jazz music, street performers, and magicians while walking downtown. Lastly, the famous mardi gra beads were given out! It was overall a very fun and eye-opening experience where we learned about a very unique, but intriguing culture.

Only two more days left!!

Take care,
Amber, Lauren, and Carli :)    

Eye-Opening Service Sites

Hi!
My name is Amber Penna and I am a Sportsmedicine Junior at the Hurst. Today, we were split up into two groups and sent to two different sites. My site was in the Lower Ninth Ward on Elysian Drive. The house is a shotgun style and was damaged from the hurricane. We completed many tasks today, including cleaning out various rooms, priming all the walls, and then adding a coat of beige paint. After this was completed, a few volunteers laid the upstairs rooms with black tarp so that flooring could be put in. Myself and two others, Brian and Joe, started laying down bamboo wood slates to form the floor. This was so much fun because none of us have ever done this type of work before and it was very easy to see progress being made!
Here is a picture of the outside of the house my group worked on today. 

The work day went by pretty quickly, but we had an awesome day and really could see all the progress we made and how productive we were! We are very excited to go back to the house tomorrow and meet the homeowner Ms. Mary, who was treated wrongly by her original contractors. Therefore, Project Homecoming took over and is hoping to have her home finished by the end of this year. The other group went to a site on Chatham Drive, where they painted and made a banister for the front porch. They as well enjoyed their day and the beautiful weather outside!

For dinner, we had salad and the famous New Orleans dish, Jambalaya, which is composed of rice, spices, seafood, chicken, and sausage. It was absolutely delicious! The dinner was hosted by Project Homecoming and we met several women who had moved down to New Jersey a few years ago to help with Katrina Relief, and we also met the first homeowner of a Project Homecoming house.  

Dinner was so good, but after a long day of work, everyone was very exhausted! Therefore, we headed back home. Here us a picture of my group who got so much work done today!!!

Hope all is well!!
God Bless,
Amber

Back in the Big Easy

Day One:

A group shot of everyone prior to leaving Mercyhurst on Wednesday morning!

Here we are on day one in New Orleans! We had a long day of traveling, after finishing finals and Fall term at the Hurst, but we have arrived! Our group is composed of 16 students and 3 chaperones; students ranging from freshmen to seniors. This year marks the seventh year since the events of Hurricane Katrina and Mercyhurst's sixth year volunteering in some way in New Orleans.

We have already seen such a positive outpouring of character and appreciation from some of the people in New Orleans. There were multiple people on the planes that thanked us for being here and contributing in our own way.

We had a group dinner at the Redeemer mission house that we are staying at. After traveling, a large group dinner of pizza and conversation was just what we needed. Over dinner we chatted about our expectations and this week's schedule of events. I am most excited about the opportunity to re-experience New Orleans through a new project! We'll update you all on how the first day on the job goes tomorrow, but its an early morning! We're working on finishing up some houses through Project Homecoming and spending the evening at a welcoming dinner! We'll let you know how it goes!!

Send us your prayers and support! 

God bless,

Adrianne

Finals and the Final Countdown

There are many benefits to being a Mercyhurst student in the future, and the best one that I can think of right now is the switch over to a semester system! Historically Mercyhurst has featured a 10-week trimester system, but there is going to be a calendar change in the fall of 2013 to implement 14-week semesters with a January term in-between. As a science major, the J-term system is going to be incredibly beneficial. In my opinion, lengthening to semesters won't make our classes so rushed!! Which would be really beneficial right now because its finals week. 

the plan for this week

So I am already one final down and two more to go before New Orleans and the service trip of a lifetime (for the second time of course!!!)

For some reason I am much more excited for NOLA 2012. I know I had so much fun last year and I think that the anticipation to do good for others and enjoy myself is what is fueling my finals right now. I am so looking forward to seeing familiar places and exploring a little more of the beautiful city!

For those of you who haven't read my previous posts about New Orleans, Mercyhurst always does a few immersion trips throughout the year through rebuilds in New Orleans over Thanksgiving break and Habitat for Humanity over spring break. It is literally an awesome way for students to spend their extra week at home doing a little extra something for others!!

Some of last year's NOLA group on the Mississippi River

That's all for now!! Stay tuned on updates after finals from New Orleans!

Adrianne

Thanksgiving Back

Every term the Freshman area residence halls get to do one big 'All-Hall' event. This is when all six Residence Assistants (RAs) get to create a program that is beneficial to the residences, but also gives back to the community. I love this program as an RA because we always get to have fun, but the girls are all giving back either to Mercyhurst or our surrounding Erie community. In the past, we have collected money to donate books to a local elementary school, had a canned food drive, and even helped to train Mercyhurst's own therapy dogs!

This term we decided to keep it really close to home. Baldwin decided that for the Fall term we were going to help fund-raise money to support the Thanksgiving dinner hosted over break for any and all students who were not going home or had a chance to go home for Thanksgiving. This event has been put on in the past through the Multicultural Center. The reason they are always active and willing to help is because a majority of students who spend Thanksgiving break on campus are international students!

Our program is set to start the collection this week, November 5th-9th. Our three floors of residents will be competing to see who can raise the most change to benefit this year's Thanksgiving. I'll let you all know the outcome after this week! It is always a good feeling to give back though!

I also just wanted to give a quick shout out to our Laker's sports team for all the accomplishments this weekend! Men's Soccer: 2012 PSAC Champions, Men's Waterpolo for their historic wins in the CWPA Southern Championships (beating John Hopkins and Princeton!!), and our Laker Football team for winning the West! Way to go Laker Nation!!

Looking forward to the Senior game next Saturday and another Open House!

Until next time,

Adrianne