Students head south for hurricane relief work

For nearly two dozen Skidmore students, Spring Break 2009 will provide a service-learning opportunity that will exemplify key themes they have confronted this year.

On Saturday, March 7, 23 students will head to the Waveland, Miss., area, to work under the auspices of the Giving Circle, a Saratoga Springs nonprofit organization. The Skidmore group includes seven women from the senior class who opted to devote their break to community service, and a group of first-year students and peer advisors, who hope to explore in depth some of the issues they are studying this year. One student, Minwook (Larry) Chong '10, is making his second trip to Waveland this spring, having accompanied the Giving Circle there last year.

For its pre-Skidmore summer reading assignment, the Class of 2012 was assigned Terence Blanchard's CD A Tale of God's Will: A Requiem for Katrina. Winner of the 2008 Grammy Award in the "Best Large Jazz Ensemble" category, the recording is a haunting and impassioned song-cycle about the physical and emotional damage to the city of New Orleans wreaked by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The recording and a package of readings related to the hurricane were provided to members of the first-year class. FYE Director Beau Breslin explained last fall, "We asked each student to explore the CD?read it, in other words?as a non-narrative text. The accompanying readings, which included poetry and a report on the government's response to the hurricane, give context to the CD. Our hope is that the breadth of the general topic will allow members of the Skidmore community to integrate at least one component into their curricular or cocurricular work."

Blanchard, Skidmore's McCormack Visiting Artist-Scholar this academic year, was on campus in the fall for a brief residency and will return again in late March for a week to interact with the Skidmore and Saratoga Springs communities. At that time, he also will meet with the students who have returned from Waveland, to hear their stories.

Michelle Hubbs, director of Skidmore's community service programs, considers the journey to Waveland an ideal opportunity for students looking to connect their classroom experience to the real world. She explained, "When considering service-learning options, I look for a positive experience for our students. I want them to align with a group that's organized and working on a meaningful project. The Giving Circle is very connected to the town of Waveland, so our students will have people to welcome them. The people there are so appreciative for the help, and we appreciate being able to offer students the chance to do some hard work and enjoy some camaraderie, too."

FYE peer advisors raised funds during the fall to help underwrite the cost of the trip. The students will stay at the Katrina Relief Camp in Waveland.

The Giving Circle evolved in 2006 from "Operation Cajun Christmas," an outreach project that took hold in the days immediately following Hurricane Katrina. Since 2006 the group has organized approximately 20 trips to the Waveland-Bay St. Louis region, which was "ground zero" for Katrina. During those visits, volunteers have worked to help residents rebuild homes and businesses destroyed in either Katrina or Hurricane Rita, which followed Katrina.

Recently the Giving Circle won accolades in a national contest sponsored by USA Weekend, a Sunday newspaper supplement. The publication sponsors the annual "Make a Difference Day," a chance for people to engage in community service, either on their own or through nonprofit groups. After completing their projects, individuals and groups are encouraged to enter the publication's contest. This year, 10 projects from around the country received awards of $10,000 each.

The Giving Circle's award resulted from its efforts to complete the reconstruction of the WQRZ radio station building in Waveland. The station was the emergency broadcast center for Hancock County, Miss., during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Gustav in 2008. The funds received via the contest will support continued work in the south as well as programs in the Saratoga area.

This spring, Skidmore students will be part of a group of about 40 that includes students from RPI and volunteers from Delaware. They will rebuild a house in Bay St. Louis that was flooded during Katrina. Although it still stands, the structure, which houses an older man, his son and daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren, needs extensive work. "We'll rebuild from the studs up?do electrical, plumbing, insulation, and Sheetrock, as well as some roof work," explained Mark Bertrand, Giving Circle co-founder and organizer of the March 7 trip. (YouTube story on the Waveland family here.)

The group also will go to Middletown, a nearby Mississippi neighborhood that is home to Martin Luther King Park, a community resource that remained neglected since Hurricane Katrina. The team will clean up the park and plant trees, and possibly begin work on a future community center, according to Bertrand.

Bertrand commended Hubbs's help in reaching out to the Skidmore community, adding, "I couldn't be happier to have students from Skidmore College join us for this trip."

A veteran of 17 visits to Waveland, Bertrand said he sometimes feels a twinge of fatigue and wonders if the need for such work will ever end. But he quickly added, "Whenever I arrive there, it's always like the first time. The fatigue goes away. When I see people living in their cars, or a tool shed?the unbelievable poverty?I say to myself, ?we're in it for the long haul. As long as it is this bad, we will keep coming and try to fix it.' The team from Skidmore will never forget the reception they receive. People are so grateful?they can't thank you enough for your help."