Hope for Stanley

A Great Week in Who Dat Nation

2010-03-22T19:37:00.001-05:00

Hey Everyone,

The DeVos Sport Business Program just went on their 24th trip to New Orleans with the Hope For Stanley Alliance. As always it was a great trip that saw 23 DeVos students give nearly 450 hours of their time to help rebuild the city of New Orleans. We got to spend time with the Stewart family, building relationships within our own group, and even got to watch a great game between the Denver Nuggets and New Orleans Hornets and even got a group picture with the New Orleans Hornets dancers on the court after the game. For me, it was great to see the city so alive and filled with hope that is surely partially brought by the recent New Orleans Saints Super Bowl victory. I always enjoy going back to the Crescent City and continue to be blessed by the people I meet and the time I spend in this great city. As always after a big trip, I choose to (instead of blogging) allow you instead to read some of the reflections from our students that went on the trip. I hope you enjoy their thoughts as much as I did!

Thanks for your support,

Devan Dignan
Hope For Stanley Graduate Assistant

"Visiting New Orleans for the third time was just as gratifying as the previous trips. It was great to see more and more progress being made to rebuild the Lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernard areas. During this trip I was fortunate enough to be able to work on the same house as I did in December. I was able to see many improvements to some the projects we previously began on the house. Unfortunately we were not able to meet any the homeowners this time but the fact that we worked towards getting someone back into a homes makes each and every trip very worthwhile. I also hope to be able attend many more trips and one day see the family living in their finished home."

~ Wayne Clark, UCF Student, DeVos Sport Business Minor

"I was really curious to see how I would feel when I arrived in New Orleans after my first trip in August. Our first day out to the worksite was eerily similar to that first time in August, everyone is quiet and just taking in the surroundings. Instead of seeing everything for the first time I now was able to see the changes that had occurred. Amusingly, I found one signal of a return to normality, a new Wal-Mart. While there was progress it was heartbreaking to still see so much that was left to do. In a way it makes you feel hopeless, like no matter how much time goes by is anything really going to change? However, I think it just shows us that much more how we need to not forget about NOLA. I think too many times people get caught up in the hype of the latest tragedy, for instance the devastation that has happened in Haiti. It always aggravates me when I tell people I’m going to build houses in New Orleans and they give me that look like “we’re still doing that?” Its like they think that time has healed everything. I’m so proud to be part of an organization that is not interested in a “one and done” kind of experience. I’m amazed and proud to say that this was Hope for Stanley’s 24^th trip.

What amazes the most about these volunteer trips is how much I get out of them. At first it may seem as if I’m really sacrificing a lot to give up my Spring Break to go build houses. I honestly feel I have gotten more from these trips then I can ever give back. I’ll be the first to tell you I’m not the type that you would want to call if you needed help with house construction. One of my biggest qualities is being a klutz. I will always be remembered from the trip in August for stapling my hand. The empowerment that comes from saying I am now able to hang drywall or insulate a house is priceless. It makes you appreciate so much what you have been given. I remember I used to complain so much when my parents would want to go to Home Depot for something to improve on our house, now I realize how lucky we are to be able to have a home that we can improve upon.

The most memorable part of this trip is definitely the bonds that I made with my teammates. A lot of the time it’s easy for us to get caught up in our own groups of friends while we’re in Orlando. When you’re scraping paint off a house for hours you can get to know someone like you never have before. While at the time the tedious work was not the best but at the end of the week seeing how much we transformed that house was great. Just making the trip itself was also a bonding experience. There’s nothing like jamming out to some old school Nsync and everyone, and I mean everyone, singing the lyrics as loud as they can. One of the biggest triumphs of the trip might have been the fact that I, a UT alumni, was able to sit in the front of our van with a UK guy and listen to the Vols and Cats play in the SEC tournament on the way home (thanks Joey for not rubbing it in too bad). Now, how’s that for ethics and diversity?

~ Natalie Welch; DeVos Class of 2011

"We just got back from our spring break trip to New Orleans. It was our third trip as a DeVos class and the first without members of the previous class joining us. It was once again a wonderful experience and a great bonding opportunity for our class. There were 22 of us on this trip, which is the largest contingent that a single DeVos class has sent on any spring break trip. We were able to contribute approximately 5000 hours of service towards rebuilding the St. Bernard area outside of New Orleans.

What was apparent to me on this trip was that our efforts are not going unnoticed or unappreciated. This past week we got to work with a group from Georgetown, and they seemed to be just as passionate about volunteering their time to help others as we are. It is great to see more and more volunteers from around the country each time we go back. This is important because we need to spread the word that New Orleans has not been rebuilt and still needs a lot of help and support. There were so many volunteers working with the St. Bernard project this week that they were able to split volunteers into two 6-hour shifts to maximize the day and get as much work done as possible. I can only imagine how extensive the improvement in the area was over the past week. The house that I worked on was a senior home designed to house elderly residents that have no other place to go. When we walked in to the home on Tuesday we saw a skeleton of a house, just the framework was up. When we left on Friday I could not believe how much work was accomplished on the house. The drywall had been put up over the entire house and the majority of the house had been through the mudding process and was ready for the next phase of development.

Another eye opening experience for me was experiencing Camp Hope. There are a number of amazing individuals, shout out to James and Aaron, who donate months and even years of their lives living in the destroyed areas of New Orleans and supervising the volunteers at each site. Our house was a block away from Camp Hope, which is where many of these volunteers live. We saw the tents that they sleep in and the communal bathrooms/changing rooms that they have in the stripped building. What was so impressive was the enlightened and lively attitude that all of the volunteers had despite their current living situation. They truly enjoyed giving their time to rebuilding the city and helping others. They were also kind enough to invite us to dinner throughout the week."

~ Mike Connolly; DeVos Class of 2011

"WHO DAT, WHO DAT, WHO DAT SAID DEY GON BEAT DEM SAINTS? From the moment we arrived in my hometown, New Orleans, Louisiana we saw signs…signs of triumph and victory. This shows how integral sports are in times of tragedy, and how it brings us together. Five years after Hurricane Katrina took down the city of New Orleans, the Saints gave us a Championship, something to cheer about. Each trip we take to New Orleans, our mission is to lend a hand in getting a victim of Katrina back into their homes. If it’s painting a house, putting up drywall, chipping paint, mold remediation, insulation, or framing a window, we completed the project to the best of our ability.

As we pulled up to the house we were going to work on during the week, our first thought was “a senior citizen home, this is small.” But once we walked inside, we saw two bathrooms, and four bedrooms in this one story home. This house was unique in the fact that there wasn’t a specific owner, but we knew we were rebuilding for older men and women. This specific trip was different, in all, because we had the second shift, 2-8 p.m. Also, the house I worked on was two blocks from Camp Hope, so during our lunch breaks we were able to join other volunteers with a meal which was prepared by Camp Hope volunteers. Many of the volunteers lived at camp hope, there were tents lined up in the backyard, a lot of them were showering during lunch/dinner…their lives, for months, were spent at this camp and rebuilding homes.

One thing that was evident to me during this trip was our ability to work together, complete the best work, and also enjoy putting up drywall or mudding. We were fortunate enough to work alongside another group, because we were able to appreciate each other’s positive attitudes and work ethic. While they complained, we danced, sang, joked along with being productive in our tasks each day. There were many firsts for me during this trip…first time using a drill, first time putting up drywall, first time using a drywall router…each day I became better, and by the end of the week I was a pro at each one.

Every time the trip ends, I’m excited about the next one. So, I am looking forward to joining the new class in August for my third trip to New Orleans"
~ Rita Grayson; DeVos Class of 2011

A Penny for Your Thoughts

2009-11-29T12:12:00.004-06:00

Who knew fundraising could be so much fun?!

In the spirit of charity and friendly competition, the DeVos Sport Business Management program recently participated in a Penny Wars fundraiser with all proceeds going to the Hope for Stanley Alliance. The object of this competition was pretty simple and straightforward. We placed two oversized jars (representing each current class) in the office for a week and the students placed loose change and bills in each container. Each penny counted for one point while silver coins and dollars subtracted points at face value. Team members helped their team by adding pennies to their team’s jar while sabotaging the other team’s final count by adding silver coins and dollars. For a full week the classes of 2010 and 2011 plotted and strategized against their friends and classmates. The trash talking ensued and all personal bonds and relationships were placed on the back burner!

The winning class received a “dress-down day” and of course the bliss that comes along with beating your friends. I must admit, the competition was stiff, but my class (2011) was victorious over the class of 2010. Our strategy? We hid large bills inside of smaller ones! The win came at the perfect time because we had an exam at 7:30am the following Monday so we were allowed to wear jeans and flip flops instead of our normal business casual attire. Although we got a kick out of the competition aspect of Penny Wars, it was all for a good cause and that was most important to everyone involved. Between November 2 – 13 we were able to raise a total of $226.27 towards rebuilding New Orleans.

Penny Wars turned out to be a big hit and a great success. We will definitely use this method of fundraising in the future. It’s fun and it supports a great cause… helping to rebuild and restore communities affected by natural disasters. Members and supporters of Hope for Stanley Alliance are always thinking of ways to positively impact the lives of the residents of New Orleans even when we aren’t physically there. Penny Wars is a small way for the students of the DeVos Sport Business Management program to give back. We are thankful to all of the friends and supporters of Hope for Stanley Alliance. Our success in New Orleans continues to grow because of you.

Naomi Robinson, Graduate Assistant, Hope for Stanley Alliance

Orlando Magic 50/50 Raffle

2009-10-31T13:51:00.005-05:00

This past week has been a busy time in the world of sport. The NFL season is reaching its halfway point, the World Series has started, the BCS rankings came out, and the NBA season began. And of course, the beginning of the NBA season has brought excitement and enthusiasm to Orlando stemming from the Magic's run to the Finals last season. Fans are anticipating a strong start to this season and are lined up outside Amway Area in hopes of generating sell out crowds to help support their team, the Magic. In past season, the DeVos Program and the Hope for Stanley Alliance has leveraged this strong fan base and teamed up with the Orlando Magic to hold a 50-50 raffle that helps raise money for the DeVos Sports Business Management Program, Hope for Stanley and the Orlando Magic Youth Fund.

The 50-50 raffle is a great fundraiser because for only $1 a ticket, participants have an opportunity to win half of the money raised as well as help out two great causes. The partnership with the Magic continues to be a blessing to Hope for Stanley. On the opening night of the season, we were able to raise over $250 for Hope for Stanley. Aside from simply raising money, it has been a great opportunity to be able to talk to Magic fans and people in the Orlando area about Hope for Stanley and to continue to strengthen the relationship between us, the Magic, and the community. I personally enjoyed being at Amway Arena and selling the raffle tickets and to do what I could to help raise money for this great cause that is very dear to me. I was very excited to give my time and effort to do something that will make a difference in the lives of the people of the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans.

So if you ever find yourself at a Magic game, take a walk around the concourse, and look for our table or individuals representing the DeVos Program selling tickets. When you buy a ticket, you not only give yourself a chance to win over $1000 but you help give someone else the chance to get their life back and to have a home

~ Devan, Graduate Assistant, Hope for Stanley Alliance

Chick-Fil-A Spirit Night

2009-10-28T11:41:00.004-05:00

The Hope for Stanley Alliance and the DeVos Sport Business Management Program teamed up to bring UCF students and the local community together in an effort to help raise money for Hope For Stanley’s efforts in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, Louisiana . Garnering the participation of one of the local Chick-Fil-A franchises, the Hope for Stanley Alliance hosted a spirit night to get more students involved and increase awareness of the Alliance's initiative. A percentage of each individual purchase of those in attendance for the event went directly towards Hope for Stanley's efforts in New Orleans. This was a unique opportunity to eat great food while also supporting a great cause – rebuilding the livelihood of the hurricane stricken community of New Orleans.

Chick-Fil-A Spirit Night was a success. Hope for Stanley is thankful for friends and supporters for their continued involvement with the Alliance and the impact they make in the New Orleans community.

Bryan Collier - Graduate Assistant for the Hope For Stanley Alliance

Final Day

2009-10-05T19:04:00.006-05:00

“You find as a writer there are certain spots on the planet where you write better than others, and I believe in that. And New Orleans is one of them.” Jimmy Buffett, singer and songwriter

In the years since Hurricane Katrina struck the city of New Orleans, much has been written about the devastation of the floods and the failures of the government in its response to a crisis. As I reflect on my last day of work on our program’s most recent visit, I feel inspired to write not about pain and loss, but rather of an optimistic belief that things are getting better thanks to the work of students in the DeVos Program. When several of my classmates and I entered our house on Mink Road, all that stood was the framework of a house that had been beaten by the storm and the effect of time. Over the next four days, we set about laying the framework for the rebuilding process, as we fastened insulation to the walls and ceilings and carefully measured and mounted drywall. With an hour to go on our last day of work, we put up the final piece of drywall in the bedroom closet, thus completing the important first steps in reconstructing a house. The people with the St. Bernard Project and our fearless house leader Milo gave us not only the tools to do some great work, but the education and encouragement needed for us to really get our hands dirty and make a difference for the homeowner, a gentleman named Mac. A longtime New Orleans resident, Mac told us he had put on hold the reconstruction of his retirement home so that the money he had could go towards rebuilding the local community center. A few years ago, Stanley Stewart and the DeVos Program worked together to build the foundation for a great partnership. Today, we carry out their vision, Hope for Stanley, to rebuild and give hope to people like Mac, one of the beautiful New Orleanians that inspire and reaffirm our purpose to help make someone’s house a home once again.

Charlie Harless is a member of the DeVos 2010 class and has been to New Orleans 3 times.

Day 4

2009-10-02T14:46:00.004-05:00

Today I had the opportunity and privilege to bond with some of my 2010 and 2011 classmates as we performed mold remediation, painting and other various tasks. On the track field, teams grow together as they push their bodies past limitations. In combat, soldiers’ grow together as they fight for a common goal. In Mack’s house DeVos students grew together as they labored in an act of service.

Joslyn Dalton is a member of the DeVos 2011 class and this is her first time to New Orleans.

This trip was more of a confirmation of what I thought of the conditions and how life was like. As for my emotions, naturally I felt angry but I also felt excited and an eagerness to get to work. I was ready. But today I actually met the owner of the home we where repairing and it shattered my mental frame. The stories she told us about how the family survived was amazing. It gave me an extra sense of pride for the people and determination to finish the job.

David Benoit is a member of the DeVos 2011 class and this is his first time to New Orleans.

This trip has been an amazing and very eye opening experience. It is a pleasure to work with such a great group of people and give back to others at the same time for the past couple of days. I have worked on a house with my incoming class of 2011 and the class of 2010. We have preformed many task including painting, mudding, hanging dry wall, installing insulation, making windows, and mold remediation. I have gained immeasurable value through the Hope for Stanley Alliance and throughout the trip. It has enabled me to receive a firsthand account of the stories and tragedies caused by Hurricane Katrina, gain home building knowledge and experience and I was able to unite with members of the DeVos program.

Austin Moss is a member of the DeVos 2011 class and this is his first time to New Orleans.

Day 3

2009-10-02T14:37:00.001-05:00

Dr. Lapchick wasn’t kidding when he said that this trip to New Orleans would be life changing. I have already been impacted by so much and I expect that the next few days will continue to touch me. I had the privilege to work at the same house that I worked the previous day, but with a fairly new set of people. Day 2, I spent the whole day putting in insulation and thought I’d never have to do it again … until today. But today was different. Today, I enjoyed it and the sense of accomplishment that we as a team made so much progress. Even when I was working by myself, I could hear the others laughing together and I felt so blessed. As J.T. put it, “I love being a part of a program that doesn’t just talk about making an impact in the world, but actually does it.” Today was the day that I realized I didn’t want to leave New Orleans. There is so much that can be done and so many people in need. Although this trip is short, I know we are leaving footprints of restoration and I can’t wait to finish the rest of the drywall tomorrow!

Jessie Gardner is a member of the DeVos 2011 class and this is her first time to New Orleans.

I have no idea what I am feeling right now, there is so much going on in my mind and in my heart. Coming back to New Orleans and talking to its people has brought back feelings from my DeVos Orientation trip a year ago. I cannot seem to forget, nor do I want to, what I felt that first day. That day changed my outlook on life. I saw a sign that read, “Don’t rebuild Iraq, rebuild New Orleans.” Needless to say, it stuck with me. I felt many things that day, but one thing kept coming to the forefront of my thoughts: I felt like America, the most powerful country in the world, had forsaken New Orleans’ people. We wouldn’t have to worry about rebuilding the Middle East, had we never been there to begin with…

What gives me hope is that the American people have not forgotten about New Orleans. We are proof of that. What we do does matter, and now it is up to us to bring the New Orleans people back to their homes.

Alejandra Diaz-Calderon is a member of the DeVos 2010 class and has been to New Orleans 2 times.

I am so glad to be back in New Orleans. It is very inspirational and promising that things are improving, though it may be slowly. Every time I ride down St. Claude Avenue, I notice more and more indications that people’s lives are being restored. Whether it is a school, a nice house, or a restaurant, the signs are promising.

Today, I was lucky enough to get to hang dry wall, which is one of my favorite restoration projects to participate in. Though tough, especially when hanging the dry wall on the ceilings, I was encouraged and happy regarding how the new class took on the task. It showed me that Hope for Stanley was being left in good hands after my class and I graduate in December.

Will Johnson is a member of the DeVos 2010 class and has been to New Orleans 4 times.

Day 2

2009-10-01T16:01:00.002-05:00

I am one of the 29 students in the DeVos 2010 class who has been touched by the people of New Orleans. I worked on a house with 3 other classmates and we did not know … what the condition of the house was before we walked into it. We went in with the mentality that we are here to work and that we will do whatever we need to do to help the family get into their home as soon as possible. We know that Hurricane Katrina hit the city of New Orleans four years ago, Aug 29, and many families have not been able to move into their home, which is obscene. My classmates and I came together diligently with the mindset that we needed to work efficiently yet make sure that we treated this house as if it were ours. We were instructed by Jon a 22 year old man from AmeriCorps. He showed us how to put up dry wall. We quickly worked as a team and found a system that we stuck by, which helped us come close to finishing all the dry wall on the ceiling of the first floor of the house. I am very thankful for Mr. Rich DeVos for funding this trip and giving me the opportunity to give back to people in need. “Hands that serve are holier than lips that pray” – Sai Baba

Shayain J. Gustavsp is a member of the DeVos 2010 class and has been to New Orleans 4times.

As always I have had another inspiring first day on a Hope For Stanley trip. I am proud to see so many DeVos students on the trip and I have already met some great people. These individuals remind me why I continually come back. I am always amazed to see the different house leaders who dedicate their lives to helping rebuild New Orleans. Although we didn’t meet the owners of the house we worked on, we have heard how much they truly appreciate the work all the volunteers do, which is why I persistently come back. Even though I’m out of school and in the real world, I have every intention of coming back to New Orleans as long there is a need. I leave New Orleans inspired every time I visit because the people are really are so uplifting with their optimism despite so much tragedy.

Ray Mathew was a member of the DeVos 2009 class and has been to New Orleans 4 times.

Day 1

2009-10-01T15:57:00.003-05:00

As I touched down in New Orleans, my first thought was “I’m Home”. New Orleans has become the city I’ve grown to love and I was glad to be back to do my part in the restoration of this city. Today we helped “The Village” in the lower 9th ward. Mack is the organizer of the Village and his goal is to transform a warehouse destroyed by Katrina to a community center for the people of New Orleans. We helped Mack by organizing books donated to the village and painted the entry door leading to the kids zone. By providing Mack with help we played a special role in Mack’s vision for the Village. Amazing start for the week of service ahead.

Kimberly Francois was a member of the DeVos 2008 class and has been to New Orleans 5 times.

Hope For Stanley August Trip Day Accounts

2009-10-01T08:12:00.003-05:00

I am anxious before the entire DeVos class arrives in New Orleans for the 2009 Orientation. The planning is the easy part – it’s good to see things fall into place and to have plans ready to be set in motion. But I’m always anxious to see how students will react to New Orleans and the people they meet. One of my fears is that students will look at New Orleans and look along apathetically, that they will not see things the way I see things, and the way so many of my classmates saw things when we first traveled here. I’ve been in New Orleans now for a year and eight months, about 605 days. I have yet to figure out everything I’ve felt about this place. Sometimes I wake up and think about how surreal it is to be here, and to be involved in something described so vaguely as “recovery.” What does it mean to recover when things will never again be the same? For New Orleans, it means everything and nothing – the word itself sometimes seems to me like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I can’t see it, and as much as I would like to think that the pot of gold is there, I know that it won’t be if I ever get to the end of the rainbow. They use the phrase “Road to Recovery” a lot around here, but I don’t know where the road starts, where it goes, and where it ends, or who’s on it. I just hope that whatever this road is, whatever we’re paving here in New Orleans, that it is headed in the right direction.

It’s been an incredible past year getting the opportunity to serve this city and its people. Through Hope for Stanley, hundreds of volunteers have discovered New Orleans to find it a charming and tragic city. Hundreds of volunteers have given their sweat, time, money, and in many cases, emotional involvement. But there are times when I’m so frustrated with everything about the rebuilding process. I’m learning things about people and governments that I wish weren’t true. It turns out that even when a disaster ruins a community, there will still be people and institutions bent on ruining things even more. And it all gets me back to the volunteers; it turns out that even when a disaster ruins a community, there will forever be people and institutions bent on making things better – on taking a stand and making change a reality and not some dream we only think or speak about. My anxiousness is relieved knowing that they are here to help. DeVos students are so talented in so many ways and I am thankful to still be connected to this program and to see how students continue to experience the program. I know that they will work hard and do whatever is asked of them. When I look back years from now, I will know that because of our collective involvement, that if there is a road headed in the right direction, we certainly played a part in paving it and walking on it alongside the rest of New Orleans.

Horacio Ruiz

A Post from another Blogger

2009-04-22T12:32:00.005-05:00

This is a post from another blogger named Robert. I do not know him, but I do enjoy reading his posts, and thought you would too. The link to his blog is: http://post-katrinaneworleans.blogspot.com/

Day 754
New Orleans, La.

Dear Family and Friends,

Daylight savings time provides an emotional boon across the City. People play later, leave work earlier and enjoy the everythings and want-to-bes of spring time life. The local parks are always full.

In a few more weeks, nearly everyone will be wearing linen.

When I first moved here 754 days ago, our newspapers and televisions led and ended with Katrina stories. Every day. I gauge the passage of time now by the amount of with "Katrina" in the newspaper. Now, there are coffee and paper mornings--I swear it--where the K-word can't be found.

I like these mornings.

When year two turned to three, our public figures and friendly tableside rhetoric shifted slightly: "Now three years later..."

And as the months progress, we are saying, "Now three and a half-years later..."

Soon it will be, "Now four years later..."

That moment in time, the day the New Orleans calendar reset, will be with this community for a long-long time. It guides the people here, provides a measuring stick of sorts. What's more than interesting for an outsider like me are the experiences that make New Orleans what it is, even if Hurricane Katrina had never happened.

Crawfish boils, annual festivals, irreverent dress-up days, and second lines come to mind.

The messy stuff is what people elsewhere see about New Orleans. I paraded from 6am to 3pm on Mardi Gras day with a blue sky and a slight breeze the whole way. When we finished, my friends and I played football in our street.

But my friend outside the City texted, "Were you near the shootings?"

Six people were shot along parade routes on Mardi Gras day. There were a few others earlier in the week as well.

New Orleans according to everyone else is a dangerous outpost where people here on business are timid about walking after dark. New Orleans according to those living here is a cultural outpost where people laugh harder, cry longer and eat better than most.

Now, if only the spring weather stayed could stay longer than May.

Best,

Robert

Comedian Chris Rock's wife visits New Orleans on a mission to serve

2009-04-22T12:19:00.002-05:00

by Sheila Stroup, The Times-Picayune

The first thing I noticed about the young volunteers was how full of joy they were.

While they applied Sheetrock mud to walls, they laughed. They sang. They stopped for a moment and danced to the music that filled the two-story brick house in Chalmette.

"When they told us we'd be mudding, I thought this was going to be a lot easier," Jasmine Figueroa said. "This is hard work."

Jasmine, 14, was one of 26 young people who came to New Orleans from Brooklyn last week to volunteer with the St. Bernard Project.

They are part of Journey for Change: Empowering Youth Through Global Service, a program started by Malaak Compton-Rock, wife of comedian Chris Rock.

"To me, service is one of the greatest things any human being can do," Compton-Rock said. "But if you live in an inner city and your whole life is in five or six blocks, how do you learn about service?"

Compton-Rock came up with a way: She would take 30 at-risk 12- to 15-year-olds from some of the most impoverished neighborhoods of Brooklyn and spend a year showing them life beyond their borough.

"Travel allows you to see the world differently," she said.

She would help them understand how much they have and how much they have to give, and they would become "global ambassadors" through service, education and advocacy.

Almost all the teenagers attend the after-school program at the Salvation Army Bushwick Community Center, where Chris Rock spent his free time when he was growing up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn.

"The center was instrumental in his life," Compton-Rock said.

When she started going to the center to meet the kids and establish a library and a computer lab, she began to understand why it meant so much to him.

"It's a really special place," she said.

The idea for Journey for Change came during one of Compton-Rock's visits to South Africa, where she has a program for orphans and grandmother-led households in an area devastated by AIDS.

"I was telling one of the grannies about the center when I realized I needed to bring those kids to South Africa," she said. "Not until they see global poverty -- poverty on a level they can't even imagine -- do they understand the inherent blessings they have living in the United States of America."

In August 2008, she took 30 young people to shantytowns in Johannesburg for two weeks, where they held orphans, planted gardens, visited families, repaired shacks, talked to children in middle schools and volunteered at clinics.

"Some of the children were HIV-positive," Jasmine said. "That was the hardest part."

"There were a lot of tears," Zuliana Burnett, 14, said. "We met two boys who were taking care of each other because their parents were dead. They used the same pot to eat out of and to go to the bathroom. We bought them a new cooking pot."

Compton-Rock wanted her ambassadors to see the beauty of South Africa and learn its history, too, so they went on a safari, visited museums and learned about apartheid.

And when it was time to leave, they begged to stay, to help, to give some more.

"When I told them that wasn't possible, they asked if they could do another service trip," Compton-Rock said.

She told them yes, but she wanted it to be in their own country, where there are plenty of opportunities to give back. And that is how they ended up repairing houses in Chalmette and Violet last week.

"I've been here five or six times since the hurricane, and I personally feel, after the initial coverage, this area doesn't get the attention it deserves," Compton-Rock said.

She chose the St. Bernard Project because she likes working with nonprofit grassroots groups, and she was inspired by the story of its founders, Zack Rosenberg and Liz McCartney, the young couple who left their jobs in Washington and made a commitment to rebuild St. Bernard Parish "one house at a time."

"They show how serving can change the whole trajectory of your life," she said.

Lisa Vaccarella, owner of the house in Chalmette the young people were working on, said she is eternally grateful to the St. Bernard Project.

"Every time I walk through the door, I see something new and I get excited," she said. "It would have taken me years to do this on my own."

The day I visited, she had taken time off from work as a guard at the St. Bernard Parish jail to make a big pot of jambalaya for the volunteers and take photographs of them working.

"I always take pictures of the workers and put them on Facebook, so when they go home they can see them and they can see how the house is coming along," she said.

During an afternoon break, the young volunteers sat down outside and listened to Vaccarella's story.

She told them how the mud in her house was knee-high after the storm, how she'd lost all her family photos, her furniture, her clothes, everything, and how everyone in the parish had gone through the same thing.

She told them how one of her sons evacuated to Houston, met a woman, got married and never came home.

"They have a little girl now," she said wistfully. "You just never think one of your kids is going to live in another state."

She told them how eight family members who lost their homes were scattered around Louisiana and Mississippi now, and as she talked, the young ambassadors began to understand: She didn't just lose her belongings. She lost the fabric of her life.

But there she was, feeding them, taking their pictures and thanking them for their help.

When it was time to get back to work, Donovan Rodgers, 14, wanted to take a minute to tell me how Journey for Change has made a difference to him.

"I think about how ungrateful I was to my mom," he said. "Now I don't give her a hard time. And I don't complain and want a new pair of sneakers every time I get a speck of dirt on them."

And what will he do when his year of service is over?

"I like helping people and seeing the smiles on their faces," he said. "I'm going to look for more opportunities like this and expand my mind about giving."

Donovan's face was covered with a fine layer of Sheetrock dust, and he went back to work, sanding the dry mud smooth while he moved to the music and sang along with Rihanna: "You can stand under my umbrella, ella, ella."

"Service and dancing at the same time," said Compton-Rock, as she tried her hand at mudding. "What could be better than that?"

Hope for Stanley March Trip Coming Up

2009-03-04T16:41:00.002-06:00

The Hope for Stanley Foundation will conduct its 18th volunteer trip to New Orleans from March 10 - 13 when 52 volunteers from across the country will come together to do rebuild work in New Orleans. Twenty-six students and friends from the University of Central Florida’s DeVos Sport Business Management program will be joined by 16 students from the University at Buffalo, and 10 students from the University of Vermont.

Volunteers will begin their trip with a tour of the Lower Ninth Ward. The tour will be led by Dr. Richard Lapchick of the University of Central Florida, often described as the “racial conscience of sport,” and named “One of the 100 Most Powerful People in Sport.” Students will meet Lower Ninth resident Stanley Stewart, whose home was destroyed by the Hurricane Katrina floodwaters. Stewart and his family were able to move back into their home two years after the storm with the help of the Hope for Stanley Foundation, which is named after Stewart.

Volunteers will spend their first two days renovating a baseball field with the New Orleans Recreational Department at Joe Brown Park in New Orleans East. The park is getting ready to begin little league play and will take another step in returning to its pre-Katrina condition when the volunteers help restore its baseball field.

Another two days will be spent working in the Lower Ninth Ward with Historic Green, a project concentrated on “green” construction and deconstruction. Volunteers will be involved with Historic Green’s vision of making the Lower Ninth Ward the nation’s first carbon-neutral community. The work will encompass restoring homes, playgrounds, gardens, and wetlands.

The Hope for Stanley Foundation has taken volunteer trips to New Orleans since December 2006, and has been recognized by the New Orleans City Council as the out-of-state group with the most volunteer trips to the city. To date, 550 volunteers have passed through the Hope for Stanley Foundation to work in different areas of the city with a number of different agencies serving New Orleans and its surrounding communities. Another group of 15 students from Canisius College in Buffalo, NY is expected to arrive in early April.

Alternative Spring Breaks

2009-03-04T16:35:00.002-06:00

From CNN.com, by Elham Khatami

This spring break, thousands of college students will ditch the bars and the beaches to do something more meaningful with their vacation time.
Brad Vonck and other student volunteers worked with the Cherokee Nation in Stilwell, Oklahoma.

Brad Vonck and other student volunteers worked with the Cherokee Nation in Stilwell, Oklahoma.

Brad Vonck is one of them. A sophomore at the University of Illinois, Vonck will travel to San Juan, Texas, in a group of 13 students to volunteer with La Union del Pueblo Entero, an organization that helps strengthen the communities and lives of farm workers and their families.

"Learning about different cultures is very important to me," Vonck said. "I like to engage in different areas of life that I don't really understand."

Every year, more and more college students, like Vonck, are choosing to spend their valuable time off from school participating in "alternative spring break" programs -- community service-based opportunities dealing with the most pressing issues of the day, including hunger and homelessness, disaster relief and global warming.

"If you can name a social issue, then students are doing trips around it," said Jill Piacitelli, executive director of Break Away, an organization that trains and helps colleges across the United States promote alternative break programs.

For the past six years, these programs have been growing in popularity among college students. Break Away estimated that this year, nearly 65,000 students will participate in its alternative break programs, an 11 percent increase from 2008.

"It's a student-led social movement. ... This is a group that very much wants to be involved in the world around them," Piacitelli said of the volunteers. "They're solution-oriented. They want to innovate and lead and involve their peers."

The average domestic trip costs around $250 or $300, Piacitelli said, which includes "housing, travel, social activities, food and often a donation to the community."

Many university programs offer financial aid and the option to raise money to help pay for trips. "It is rare that anyone who wants to go on a trip cannot go," Piacitelli said. The affordability is part of the reason why so many students return for second or third trips.

Nikunj Shah, a graduate of Arcadia University, has taken several alternative spring break trips volunteering in the United States and Mexico. This year, he will be traveling as an alumnus to Jean Lafitte, Louisiana, a city that has been largely ignored by disaster relief efforts in the wake of hurricanes Katrina, Wilma and Rita.

"I've always had an interest in helping people. I've always been really involved in community service," Shah said. "So I saw this as an opportunity to go places I haven't been before, to get a feel for different cultures and to help people there that truly need help."

In an effort to expand their alternative spring break options, universities across the United States partner with humanitarian organizations like the United Way of America. Randy Punley, director of corporate and media partnerships at the United Way, oversees the organization's Alternative Spring Break programs. After Hurricane Katrina, the United Way partnered with MTV to engage young people in the response effort.

"We knew there was an interest and a passion in young people for the work we were trying to achieve," Punley said.

Since then, the United Way has evolved and expanded, establishing chapters on college campuses. The organization has also developed an Alternative Spring Break Social Media Challenge, encouraging young people to be active in their communities and use social media Web sites, like Facebook or Twitter, to involve other people.

"Whether it started with the first Gulf War, punctuated by the September 11 attacks and Katrina and the economic meltdown, young people have a very different perspective about what's going on in the world," Punley said.

At the end of the weeklong trip, most students say it was the best week of their lives, Punley said. The increasing interest in these programs, Punley believes, speaks volumes about the attitudes of Generation Y, a group of people who are eager to make an impact on the world around them.

"It's such a difference from going home and not really feeling accomplished to going on these trips and meeting new people," Vonck said. "You get experiences that you wouldn't get sitting on the couch watching TV for a week."

Piacitelli said these programs encourage young people to continue serving their communities and those in need.

"The students are the main benefactors of what goes on," Piacitelli said. "It changes their consciousness. They get really interested in social issues ... They see themselves as active citizens, and helping the community becomes a priority."

Like Vonck and Shah, University of Illinois senior Adriana Collazo has a passion for community service. During her spring break last year, Collazo traveled to the Bronx in New York to volunteer at a homeless shelter. She stayed at a hostel with other volunteers and helped serve food and organize clothing drives.

"I never really had all that money to go off and do the whole Cancun, Mexico, spring break, and I didn't really want to, because I think that's throwing away money," Collazo said. "When you can give back, it's selfish."
advertisement

The trip to the Bronx was a personal one for Collazo who, at the age of 6, experienced poverty firsthand when her family became homeless.

"My family's better now, and I want to give back," Collazo said. "I think a lot of students have realized that they can do better things with their time. ... It humbles you."

The High School That Beat Katrina

2009-01-27T16:03:00.002-06:00

Ben Frankling High School, a New Orleans public school, was ranked the 16th best school in the nation and the best in Louisiana by U.S. News and World Report. Franklin is located on the campus of the University of New Orleans. Built primarily of concrete and brick, the school mostly withstood Katrina's impact, faring far better than the traditional wooden schools in other parts of the city. Many of those schools will never reopen. Here is a link to the article to find out how Franklin has achieved its success: http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/high-schools/2008/12/04/a-high-school-that-beat-katrina.html

Trouble the Water

2009-01-23T14:12:00.002-06:00

The documentary "Trouble the Water" has been nominated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the 81st Annual Academy Awards for best documentary feature. The documentary was screened at the King Center's Freedom Hall for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with Kimberly and Scott Roberts and The Free Agents Brass Band of New Orleans. The film was also nominated for an NAACP Image Award for outstanding documentary. As it says on the web site, "TROUBLE THE WATER takes you inside Hurricane Katrina in a way never before seen on screen. It's a redemptive tale of two self-described street hustlers who become heroes-two unforgettable people who survive the storm and then seize a chance for a new beginning." Look to see if it is playing in a theater near you or if you can watch it on DVD.

Pulling Up Roots To Plant Seeds of Hope

2009-01-21T12:54:00.002-06:00

A great article on the St. Bernard Project.
D.C. Couple Walked Away From Lives of Comfort To Bring Some to People Shattered by Katrina
By Jacqueline L. Salmon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 21, 2008

CHALMETTE, La. Not so long ago, it was tailored suits, power lunches and a comfortable Capitol Hill apartment for Zach Rosenburg and Liz McCartney.

These days, they wear battered shorts, munch donated power bars, work in a storefront office and sleep far from their former lives in a leaky "shotgun" house in hurricane-prone New Orleans.

Days spent in quiet offices have been replaced with hammering and drilling. Their colleagues are no longer fellow lawyers and nonprofit managers but volunteer carpenters and plumbers. And just as Rosenburg and McCartney have transformed their own lives, they are hoping to transform the lives of thousands still homeless because of Hurricane Katrina.

Two years ago, the couple gave up jobs, friends and comfortable salaries in Washington to move south and start, from the ground up, an organization that rebuilds homes in St. Bernard Parish. The gritty community of blue-collar workers, fishermen and oil refinery workers was all but wiped from the map when Katrina blew ashore in 2005.

Even though they barely knew which end of a hammer to hold, they embarked on a mission that they simply called the St. Bernard Project. First learning basic construction skills, then growing more sophisticated and using their professional expertise to seek grants and donations, Rosenburg and McCartney slowly but surely built an organization. It has turned into one of the largest of its kind in the region because of two things: a steady supply of volunteers and an even more constant flow of people in need.

As the Gulf Coast rebuilds after Hurricane Ike and work continues long after Katrina, the St. Bernard Project may be a model of how small nonprofit organizations can help private property owners who lack insurance.

"If it weren't for this place, we wouldn't be in our house," said St. Bernard resident Charlene Huerstel, 45. The group built her three-bedroom home after she and her husband, David, disabled with chronic hepatitis C, had run out of money.

"It's wonderful," she said. "They come down and help people they don't even know. It's the great American spirit."

* * *

On their first trip to New Orleans in January 2006, the couple did not plan to become the Bob Vilas of the volunteer crowd.

They had met at a bar during a Scrabble tournament and have been together six years. Rosenburg, 35, went to American University law school and played golf with a 16 handicap. McCartney, 36, grew up in Washington, attended Georgetown Visitation and George Washington University and ran marathons.

Like thousands of Americans, they traveled to New Orleans after Katrina to see how they could help. They ended up in St. Bernard, southeast of New Orleans, serving food and dispensing clothing. They heard the horror stories of bodies floating by, of homes ripped from their foundations, of entire families homeless and distraught. All of St. Bernard's 27,000 houses were damaged or destroyed.

Before going back to their comfortable lives in Washington, the couple walked and talked through New Orleans: Rosenburg, short and intense, the impulsive visionary of the pair, and McCartney, cool and detail-oriented.

"It really was gut-check time," Rosenburg recalled. "You look in the mirror and see what you're all about."

On one night's walk, Rosenburg suddenly declared: "I'm coming back."

From his tone, McCartney knew he meant for longer than a week or two.

She offered a question -- and a commitment: "What would we do?"

They were already people inclined to help others. His law practice represented indigents; her nonprofit group, the Capitol Hill Computer Corner, offered computer training to the poor. But in St. Bernard, they had found people who needed even more help.

Before leaving New Orleans, she canceled a job interview, and he began arrangements to wind down his practice.

They went home long enough to pack up the apartment, then returned in June. Their initial plan was to build a community center, a camp for kids and a co-op for residents to share tools. But soon after they arrived, they realized the needs were more basic. Residents were living in smashed homes, garages or even tents. Only a fraction of people had returned, and few had money to rebuild.

The couple decided to renovate houses -- once they learned how.

Frank White, 65, who owned a flooded-out appliance-repair store in an industrial section of Chalmette, offered his store as office space for them if they rebuilt it. And as it quickly became clear that McCartney and Rosenburg had no experience with hammer and nail, White tutored them.

It did not come easily. White pointed to the dropped ceiling in one of the project's two first-floor rooms. "Took me four hours" to install, he said. Next door, he chuckled, "took me six hours -- Zach helped."

Still, Rosenburg and McCartney persisted. Renovating houses during the week and the office on weekends -- while McCartney held down a job to pay living expenses -- the couple did their best alongside a growing number of volunteers. McCartney used her grant-writing skills from her nonprofit life in Washington to write applications for foundation and corporate funding, and the pair traveled around the country pitching the program to potential donors and volunteers.

"They were producing a significant result with a minimum amount of funding," said Gary Ostroske, president of the United Way for the Greater New Orleans Area, which has given the group tens of thousands of dollars. "They were able to get people -- the elderly and single parents -- back into their homes who otherwise would have had a very difficult time after the hurricane."

With a budget this year of $2.7 million in donations and a staff of 32, the St. Bernard Project uses 150 to 500 volunteers a week in the largest organization of its kind in the area. The project has rebuilt 145 homes and has ambitions to keep going until it stops receiving applications.

"No one," said Mike Ginart, a member of the St. Bernard Parish Council, has "been able to achieve anything close to their success."

It has not been easy. With each hurricane season comes the threat that all their work could be undone. This month, Hurricane Gustav disrupted plans for a 24-hour rebuilding marathon meant to mark Katrina's third anniversary. Rosenburg, McCartney and their volunteers were forced to evacuate.

Anxious residents came by as they packed tools and boarded up windows and wondered whether the couple and volunteers would come back if Gustav hit them hard.

"We are committed to this community," Rosenburg told them. "And simply because the government hasn't built the levees the way they should be built doesn't mean we are giving up on you the way the government gave up on you. We see value in the community, and we believe in you."

* * *

Spared by Gustav's shifting path, the project's work continues. Although St. Bernard's main commercial strip has come back with beauty parlors, fast-food restaurants and car repair shops, many side streets are a mix of abandoned homes and concrete slabs. Only about half of the parish's residents remain.

The project's offices are always in a state of organized mayhem as staffers -- most of them rotating teams of AmeriCorps members -- and volunteers rush to and from jobs. Currently, 36 houses -- owned by disabled people, senior citizens and families with children that do not have enough money to hire a contractor -- are being worked on.

They say they can transform a gutted shell into a finished house in less than 12 weeks at an average cost of $12,000.

For some parish residents, the St. Bernard Project is their only hope. And those who first reacted with doubt to the newcomers' arrival are now regulars in the office.

Stephen Gonzales, 64, a former courier whose job and home were wiped out, settled into the couch in the office one day recently just to visit. He is living in a trailer on the concrete pad of his former home. His wife, Joanne, passed away in his arms several months after the storm, which killed his seven cats and his dog.

Gonzales reminisces. "We had 32,000 Christmas lights on our house -- not on the shrubbery, just the house," he said, fighting back tears.

Rosenburg and McCartney have gotten to know many of the people and feel their losses. "Our clients didn't just lose their houses, their belongings and all their property," Rosenburg said. "They lost a sense of community and an understanding of where they fit in society. And so, what our volunteers and staff do is let our clients know that they are not forgotten, that they are American, and people still believe in them."

The trauma three years after the hurricane is so severe that Rosenburg and McCartney plan to start a mental health clinic in January with counselors from Louisiana State University's Health Sciences Center.

These days, the couple don't do much construction themselves -- to the relief of their volunteers.

Instead, they focus on running the organization. McCartney writes grant proposals, handles paychecks and supervises the team that does the purchasing; the project spends upward of $50,000 a month at the nearby Home Depot, making it the store's largest customer. Rosenburg meets with funders as the public face of the organization and its immovable force of optimism.

He considers eventually returning to Washington and resuming his law practice, but the couple see more immediate needs calling to them.

"It's hard to think about what's next when there is still so much to do here," McCartney said.

Still flailing in Katrina's wake

2009-01-18T22:42:00.003-06:00

Source: http://www.salon.com/ent/tv/review/2009/01/06/frontline/
Byline: Heather Havrilesky
PBS's Frontline documentary "The Old Man and the Storm" tells a tale of adversity triumphing over one ordinary man.

"Why am I back here? Man, I'm back here trying to clear my place up. It took me too long and I worked too hard to build what I have here to just pick up and leave like that." -- Herbert Gettridge

After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in August of 2005, all 82-year-old Herbert Gettridge could think about was returning home again. He watched the devastation from the safety of his daughter Cheryl's house in Madison, Wis., straining his eyes for a glimpse of his own house all the while.

"He was outta his mind, worried about when he was gonna be able to get back to the house," Cheryl told the filmmakers behind Frontline's "The Old Man and the Storm" (premieres at 9 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 6, on PBS; check local listings). At first glance, the documentary looks like another uplifting, ultimately hopeful story about how Hurricane Katrina laid bare one man's will to persevere against all odds.

Sadly, though, Gettridge's experience is anything but positive. First there's the heart-wrenching discovery that his house has been all but destroyed by floodwaters. Even so, Gettridge gets to work, living without electricity, drinkable water or a bed. His wife is still in Wisconsin and longs to be home with him, but the house isn't ready for her yet, and since she's in poor health, it makes more sense for her to stay with her daughter.

As the months roll by, few of Gettridge's neighbors return to the neighborhood, because few can afford to come back and rebuild. Where he was once surrounded by his family, several generations all living within a few blocks of each other, Gettridge now finds himself alone, his seven kids and dozens of grandchildren and great grandchildren scattered across the country and hesitant to return to New Orleans, given the destruction and the lack of opportunities waiting for them there.

While several charities help Gettridge to rebuild, his homeowner's insurance doesn't pay nearly the amount it promised to pay on his policies. Then there were the empty promises of city, state and federal aid. The Bush administration claimed that it would "do what it takes" and "stay as long as it takes" to help residents rebuild their lives, but those initiatives ran aground. Despite the Road Home program's pledge to help underinsured homeowners rebuild their homes, by the end of 2007, over 100,000 homeowners had applied for assistance but fewer than 500 had received a check.

Two years after the storm, Gettridge's house is finally in livable shape, and his wife, Lydia, returns home. But this isn't the Oprah-style Katrina homecoming we've come to expect, replete with brand-new throw pillows placed at jaunty angles on the couch by plucky interior designer Nate Berkus. No, this is Frontline, the Debbie Downer of documentary series. Instead of smiles and tears of joy, we see Lydia bewildered by the changes in her home.

"I don't like the smell," she says, and then remarks that the house is way too hot. Gettridge tries to cheer her up with a little flattery, saying, "You lookin' like sweet 16!" meaning she's just as pretty as she was when they were younger.

"I know better than that," Lydia grumbles. "I ain't buyin' that stuff."

As uncomfortable as these moments are to watch, they provide an unvarnished look at the reality of life in New Orleans, as those in the Ninth Ward and elsewhere continue to struggle in Katrina's wake after the rest of the world has moved on.

Despite all of the valiant promises by Bush, FEMA, the state of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans, men and women like Gettridge and his wife and their extended families have been torn apart. "The Old Man and the Storm" reveals how many of the city's underinsured residents have received little or no help in getting back on their feet and bringing their families back together. This documentary is the crashing denouement to the uplifting, tear-jerking feel-good Sundance documentary "Trouble the Water." Three years after Katrina, these residents' lives are still in shambles, and no amount of individual hard work and hope and determination could change that fact.

Gettridge himself seems to be struggling with this hard truth as the film closes. When asked if he'd do it all again, his answer isn't one of a hero. It's the answer of a tired old man who feels defeated by forces far bigger than himself.

"I'm kind of skeptical about that now. Once upon a time, I could answer that question in a split second for you. I can't do that now."

Being Bob Cerasoli - New Orleans' Inspector General Has faced a year of personal and professional challenges — and there are more to come.

2009-01-15T12:12:00.002-06:00

This is an article published in The Gambit, a news weekly in New Orleans. The article is written by the Gambit's Kevin Allman. The article is about Bob Cerasoli, the first-ever Inspector General in New Orleans. His hard work and determination to clean up New Orleans is an inspiration for those that want to see change. What is an Inspector General? According to wikipedia, In the United States, an Inspector General (IG) is a type of investigator charged with examining the actions of a government agency, military organization, or military contractor as a general auditor of their operations to ensure they are operating in compliance with general established policies of the government, to audit the effectiveness of security procedures, or to discover the possibility of misconduct, waste, fraud, theft, or certain types of criminal activity by individuals or groups related to the agency's operation, usually involving some misuse of the organization's funds or credit. In the United States, there exist numerous Offices of Inspector General (OIGs) at the federal, state, and local levels.

Robert A. Cerasoli is trudging down Baronne Street, slightly late for his next appointment. It's Dec. 17, and Cerasoli has just released his first report, 15 months after he became New Orleans' first-ever inspector general. It's 11:30 a.m., and he's already given several interviews, declined a radio interview due to time constraints, and wolfed down a plate of French toast with bacon.

"I forgot to eat yesterday," he explains. He's looking forward to a Christmas break with family in Massachusetts.

Cerasoli's report may have been a long time coming, but it's right on time: That day, the City Council will announce that it's vetoing many of the mayor's 2009 budget requests, including a $2 million line-item for take-home vehicles, the very subject of Cerasoli's "Interim Report on the Management of the Administrative Vehicle Fleet."

The report spells out why. City ordinances limit the number of take-home vehicles to 60 (50 for the mayor's office, 10 for the fire department), but Cerasoli's investigators found 273 vehicles. The mayor's office alone accounts for 73 of them; Nagin himself has both a 2005 Lincoln Continental (insured value: $37,500) and a 2007 Ford Expedition ($33,042.25). The list details a fleet valued at more than $4 million, and the mayor's 2009 budget includes another $2 million for a "vehicle replacement program."

"We didn't try to pose this as a 'gotcha' report," Cerasoli says mildly. "There are specific instances of abuse that are detailed, but we wanted to engage the city to say: 'You can change, you've got to keep better records.'"

On Tuesday this week, Nagin told WWL-TV that the 60-car limit was an "outdated ordinance." By Thursday, as the City Council attempted to finalize the 2009 budget, Nagin had backed down a bit. In a written statement to the council, he promised to respond in writing to Cerasoli's report by Jan. 30, "and not to purchase any administrative vehicles this budget year." The council is expected to vote again on the car program this week.

One question remains unanswered in Cerasoli's 53-page report: How does the city keep track of its vehicle fleet? On Excel sheets? In ledger books? On Galatoire's napkins?

"If you're thinking in practical information-technology terms — what you would conceptualize in an I.T. environmen — that does not exist in this city," Cerasoli says. The inspector general pauses. "Which is absolutely amazing for the amount of money they've spent for information technology."

WHEN CERASOLI arrived from Boston to set up New Orleans' first-ever Office of the Inspector General, he needed inventory tags — the little bar-code stickers that offices use to keep track of computers, monitors and other workplace valuables. He called City Hall to get some. It was one of his first, but not his last, surprises when it came to New Orleans city government.

"The city does not know all its assets," he says. "The city does not have a list of all its real property and all its movable property. They don't have inventories of anything. When we called people [at City Hall] to ask them where they get their inventory tags, they said they don't have any. They don't buy them.

"You can't steal what you don't own," he says wryly. "See what I mean?"

Cerasoli himself doesn't own much in New Orleans. After living at Le Pavillon hotel for a time when he first arrived in town, he upgraded to a small apartment in the CBD, where he sleeps on an air mattress. "I've got my luggage in the middle of the apartment, I've got my clothes on hangers, and that's it," he says. A few books. A few suits — black and baggy, more Ralph Nader than Ralph Lauren. "I had my car here, but I brought it home (to Massachusetts), and something happened with the catalytic converter, and I didn't bring it back," he says. "So I'm walking."

He also doesn't seem to have friends. "Friends?" he asks. "I think somebody in my position has to be careful of the friends they pick."

Not that Cerasoli wants for recognition in New Orleans. Leaving his breakfast, he's not 10 feet down Baronne Street when he passes a New Breed cab parked at the curb. "Hey!" says the driver, sticking his hand out the window for a shake. "Thank you," Cerasoli mutters, shyly but sincerely. The scenario repeats itself six times in four blocks: a pedestrian stops in his tracks and exclaims, "Great work!"; a motorist stops in the intersection at Perdido Street and waves him through enthusiastically.

"A funny story I'll tell you," he says. "We were invited to meet with the president of the United States. So you get the call from the Secret Service, and they tell you to meet in separate groups, then they take you where the president is going to be. You don't even know where you're going. We get to the Royal Sonesta (Hotel) and (U.S. Attorney) Jim Letten was in my group. We're going down Bourbon Street, and we walk by Larry Flynt's Barely Legal Club. And I said, 'Jim, let me tell you something. If someone with a cellphone takes a picture of you and I in front of Larry Flynt's Barely Legal Club, we'll have a tough time explaining that.'"

Cerasoli laughs, then turns serious. "I don't even go down to the French Quarter. A friend of mine came into town with the National Conference of State Legislators, and we were walking down in the French Quarter at night. I felt so uncomfortable, because there's all the police, and they know me, and the people ...

"To me, coming from Boston, it seems so decadent," he says softly. "Seeing all these people, doing all the things that they're doing."

CERASOLI grew up in Quincy, Mass., a New England seaside city that is part of the Boston metroplex, the birthplace of John Adams, John Quincy Adams and John Hancock. His father, a dockworker, died when Cerasoli was 10; his mother worked as a beautician. He grew up in a Catholic household but became a Baptist in 1995 and joined the Messiah Baptist Church, an African-American congregation in Brockton, Mass. "I pray a lot," he says. He is reticent on the subject of family, though he mentions a sister in Quincy. He matriculated from American University in Washington, D.C., and worked as a financial investor at Drexel Burnham Lambert.

Cerasoli's public service began in 1975, when he ran for a seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. He was subsequently re-elected five times. In 1991, then-Gov. William Weld tapped him for the state's Office of Inspector General, which had been founded 10 years earlier. Cerasoli became the state's second IG and had the right to introduce legislation (something he cannot do in New Orleans).

Cerasoli's most famous report during that tenure was on Boston's "Big Dig" subway project, a 3.5-mile tunnel, which had gone years past its deadline and billions overbudget. Cerasoli found design and safety flaws (confirmed in 2006 when part of the ceiling collapsed on motorists, killing a woman), and his report slammed several state officials, among them then-Massachusetts Gov. Paul Cellucci. Cellucci responded by attempting to close Cerasoli's office, but the state legislature blocked the move.

One month after the report, the governor resigned suddenly, accepting an ambassadorship to Canada that had been proferred by President George W. Bush.

THE STRUGGLES OF CERASOLI'S first months in New Orleans were well-publicized: trouble getting computers, trouble getting telephones, trouble getting cooperation. As the months stretched into a year with no reports issued, some members of the public got restless, wondering what the inspector general was doing. The IG expressed his frustration with their dissatisfaction. "I don't need this job," he told The Gambit last March. "If I can't do it right, I won't do it."

Today, a year and a half into his tenure, the inspector general's office still doesn't have networked computers or a server. His office finally got a fax machine and a coffee maker a month ago. (When I first met him last summer, Cerasoli didn't even have a business card; he scrawled his AOL email address and Massachusetts cell phone number on the back of someone else's and gave that to me.)

"It's hard to express the frustration of it all," says the Rev. Kevin Wildes, president of Loyola University and chairman of the New Orleans Ethics Review Board, which hired and oversees the inspector general. "We're just getting computer stuff now. It's an incredible testimony to how badly the system runs and works."

In Massachusetts, Cerasoli says, "People would respond to me. I could get documents, I could get information without having to issue a subpoena every time I needed something. People understood what the inspector general did, they cooperated with the inspector general. ... I don't think the administration understands our role in terms of the separation of powers." Nowhere was this more apparent than last August. When the New Orleans Home Ownership scandal broke, City Attorney Penya Moses-Fields sent Cerasoli a letter asking him to "provide a direct communication to my office when you initiate an investigation."

"I said, 'No, I would not inform you, and you cannot keep the records secret under the guise of an investigation, because they are public documents,'" Cerasoli says.

Did Moses-Fields act on her own volition, or had she been ordered to make the request from higher up?

"I have no idea," Cerasoli says. "I don't deal with anyone in the mayor's office. I've met the mayor on exactly five occasions — twice in City Hall, once at the cinemas out at Clearview. The people in my office deal with (New Orleans CEO) Brenda Hatfield, but I don't deal with anybody else. I don't really have to."

BOB CERASOLI had no intention of coming to New Orleans. In 2004, he accepted a job as director of fraud investigation for the city of Philadelphia. Then he told his 91-year-old mother. "She said 'I'll die, and I'll never forgive you,'" Cerasoli says. "'This is the time you promised to give me. You did your time in public service. You've got to spend this time with me.'" So he rescinded his acceptance, went home and spent months with his mother, listening to her stories and getting them down on an old tape recorder. She developed ischemic colitis, and her health failed quickly.

In April 2007, Cerasoli got a call from Leonard Odom, a friend in the Association of Inspectors General, urging him to apply for the position in New Orleans. "I said, 'Len, get off my back. My mother's dying,'" Cerasoli says. Odom was insistent. To get his friend to stop bothering him, Cerasoli sent his resumé on the last possible day. His mother died shortly after. He says a chance comment at her funeral changed his life's direction: "This woman from childhood comes up to me and says, 'Bob, I just heard you give your mother's eulogy. I gotta tell you, I think you shouldn't stay here in Quincy. Go someplace in the United States. Take that knowledge you've earned and give it to somebody who needs it.'"

He went to New Orleans and met with the ethics board for an interview. "I thought about my mother," he says. "I thought about the woman in the church, and I thought about the stuff I said to myself when I sat in front of my TV as Katrina was occurring. Like a million other people in the United States, I wished I could do something to help them. And without even talking salary, I said to myself, 'Yeah. I'll do it.'"

On June 12, 12 years after New Orleans had voted the office into law, Cerasoli was offered the job as the city's first-ever inspector general. (In October 2008, voters made the office permanent by more than 70 percent of the vote and gave the IG's office three-quarters of 1 percent of the city's operating budget.)

Asked if there's anything he likes about New Orleans, Cerasoli doesn't mention food or music. "The people," he says. "There are a lot of people who love this city, a lot of people want to see change. But nothing changes. I am hoping I can be a catalyst, but oftentimes there is so much pressure on me that it is humbling and awe-inspiring."

"People see hope, and they see it with good reason," Ethics Review Board Chairman Wildes says. "More reports are coming. Things are going to start happening ... and things are going to get tougher for him."

What does a man do in that situation? "I just pray," Cerasoli says. "I think about my mother. I pray to God.

"It's hard sometimes."

There is a postscript to this story. On Dec. 23, while visiting family for Christmas, Cerasoli underwent surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Needham, Mass., to have some tissue removed from his neck: one a sebaceous cyst, the other a "growth the size of a lemon." ("I can verify this," he wrote in an email, "because I asked to see it after it was removed.") The growth was taken for biopsy. "I'd been putting this off for a while, since before I came to New Orleans," he says.

When we spoke last week, he had not gotten the biopsy results. "It's all in God's hands," he said.

Cerasoli plans to return to New Orleans this week to resume work. There's a lot to do. A more complete version of the city-car report is forthcoming, as well as a report on the city's infamous crime-camera system. Cerasoli says a long-promised, 24-hour tipline where citizens can report malfeasance should be up and running by the middle of this month. Wildes says Cerasoli also has agreed to partner with architects of the new schools building plan "to prevent the crap from happening before it gets started."

Cerasoli says he does not intend to divulge or make any public statement about his diagnosis because he doesn't want it to interfere with the performance of his job. "It's all in God's hands," he repeated.

Editorial: New Orleanians, and the nation, know what happened after Katrina

2009-01-14T20:45:00.002-06:00

This column was written on Jan. 13, 2009 by the Times-Picayune editorial staff in response to President George W. Bush's last scheduled press conference. It serves as an honest assessment that the government has done a lot for the recovery in New Orleans, but there is much, much more room for improvement.

Metro New Orleans residents will never forget the despair of those dark days after Hurricane Katrina and the federal levee failures flooded much of the region.

The wound of those memories is still raw just below the surface. Thus, President George W. Bush's defense Monday of the federal response< immediately after the storm stirs deep emotions.

In his last scheduled press conference, the president vigorously dismissed criticism of the government's performance.

"Don't tell me the federal response was slow when there was 30,000 people pulled off roofs right after the storm passed," the president said, pounding the lectern. "That's a pretty quick response. . . . Could things have been done better? Absolutely, absolutely. But when I hear people say the federal response was slow, what are they going to say to those chopper drivers or the 30,000 who got pulled off the roof?"

The U.S. Coast Guard, indeed, performed thousands of heroic rescues after the storm. But it's indisputable that the rest of the federal bureaucracy failed miserably in aiding tens of thousands of people who waited days for water, food and evacuation. Even reports by the White House and Congress faulted the federal performance.

So did President Bush a few days after Katrina. "The results are not acceptable," the president said Sept. 2, 2005, referring to the federal failure to timely deliver food and medicines to survivors.

In his memorable Jackson Square speech the following week, the president spoke of the suffering the country had witnessed after the storm, "the kind of desperation no citizen of this great and generous nation should ever have to know." He added: "Americans have every right to expect a more effective response in a time of emergency."

In the long run, the federal government has provided vital aid to help millions return and rebuild their Gulf Coast communities and will continue playing a crucial role in our recovery. As President Bush also said Monday, there's still plenty to be done here.

But there ought to be no question that the government's immediate response was slow and shameful.

This is more than a difference in semantics. Plenty of reforms are still needed at the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other federal disaster-response entities. The last thing bureaucrats in those agencies need is the view that their performance during Katrina was fine.

It wasn't. New Orleanians and the nation know it.

Winter Break Trip

2009-01-11T22:28:00.001-06:00

Greg Austin is a recent graduate of the DeVos Sport Business Management Program. In his time in the program, Greg visited New Orleans four times on volunteer trips. Here he writes about his fourth trip to New Orleans in December 2008.

It’s funny how I misjudged my time here in New Orleans and mistakenly bought a flight that leaves at 7pm, later than EVERYBODY. But on second thought it was a good choice to book this flight because it gives me time to really think and reflect on the past few days.

Coming here this time marked my 4^th official visit to this city, but this time was special. Just a year ago I had finished my first semester of Graduate School and really did not know what was going to come of my visit. I had many things on my mind gearing up for this occasion, the least of which was thinking that I would be an integral part in putting smiles on many faces and being a angel of hope. As I reflect back to just one year ago, many thoughts come to my mind, but one poem really sticks out that epitomizes the genuine people that I have had the opportunity to meet. This poem is titled “Gods Minute” and was written by Dr. Benjamin E. Mays.

Gods Minute

I have only just a minute

Only 60 seconds in it

Forced upon me, can’t refuse it

Didn’t seek it, didn’t choose it

But it’s up to me to use it

I must suffer if I lose it

Give account if I abuse it

Just a tiny little minute

But ETERNITY is in it.

After hearing the testimonies of People such as: Arnie Fielkow, Mr. and Mrs. Stewart, Mr. Robert Green, Smitty P, Brenda Dupre, The Shoe Doctor, St. Bernard Project workers, Americorps, Hope for Stanley volunteers, etc, I know that this poem is ALIVE.

The people listed above (in some cases literally) had only just a minute that was forced upon them and they used it to the best of their ability. Others that are listed are the people who have the same minute that they have forced upon themselves to help the people of New Orleans.

Greg Austin
DeVos 2009

Prospect.1 in New Orleans

2008-11-21T19:44:00.009-06:00

The art world is doing its part in bringing attention to New Orleans in a big way.

As it says on its web site, "Prospect.1 New Orleans [P.1], is the largest biennial of international contemporary art ever organized in the United States, opened to the public on November 1, 2008 in museums, historic buildings, and found sites throughout New Orleans. Prospect.1 New Orleans has been designed to help reinvigorate New Orleans following the human, civic, and economic devastation left by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The long-term primary goal of the biennial exhibition is to redefine the city as a cultural destination, where the visual arts are celebrated and can once again thrive. Prospect.1 New Orleans aspires to initiate a new category of cultural tourism for the city, on a scale normally seen during Mardi Gras and the city's celebrated JazzFest."

The installations are located all over the city and offer some breathtaking pieces, including some in the Lower Ninth Ward. I've posted some of those images here. It's surreal seeing some of these pieces of art work in some of the most devastated areas of New Orleans. For one, it makes me appreciate the beauty of the work amidst all the destruction and silence, but at the same time, there's a certain sense of sadness with these pieces of work. It's as if they're these beautiful artifacts that were left behind. In any case, I commend this project and the attention that it will give the entire city of New Orleans. To learn more, visit the web site at www.prospectneworleans.org.

Community Service

2008-10-08T18:31:00.005-05:00

I was doing some research earlier today on athletic departments and the amount of community service hours that they contribute to their communities every year when I ran into a few other stories that caught my attention (by the way, a lot of athletic departments do a phenomenal job in their communities and I wonder if enough people realize that). There were stories on people, and in this particular instance, student-athletes, that got in trouble with the law and were put on probation a certain number of years and they were also "sentenced" to each complete 100 hours of community service.

Obviously, it's not just student-athletes that are made to do community service as "punishment." This is a similar "fate" shared by very many people that get in trouble with the law. But, it made me wonder about why we make people that have legal programs complete community service hours as a part of their plea deals or sentences. Perhaps it is a way for these people to pay their debt to society, and I can buy that to a certain extent. Economically speaking, an efficient volunteer program can contribute an untold amount of money to businesses, corporate and non-profit alike. But I'm not fine with the idea that community service is used as punishment, not when it means that people are contributing something positive to others in need.

Of course, certain community service projects can consist of mopping floors, digging roadside ditches, and picking up garbage from the side of a road. Hey that's fine by me, in fact that sounds like a lot of non-fun! But let's please refrain from calling that kind of work community service. I have no doubt that the community as a whole or even a segment of the community is benefiting from the activities described above, but they certainly don't capture my idealistic picture of community service. Maybe court-mandated community service should be called community "labor," or community drudgery. Let's just not call this community service when people are being forced to do these things and when they are doing it to avoid a steeper legal sentencing. Let's be honest about what it is. I know this argument opens itself up to a lot of counter-arguments, many of them valid (I'm not going to list all the possible counter-arguments), I'm just offended that what I do for a living is considered a punishment when I think that it's a privilege. I don't like the perception that people may get about community service, as if the act itself, of contributing positively with no monetary benefit, is a momentary purgatory for the legally challenged. To the contrary, it is deeply impacting, just as it was to my good friends Marcus and Elliot who are in the picture, helping to paint Stanley's home.

I also ran into a USA Today article on athletes and community labor sentences, which I will provide the link to here: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/2006-05-04-community-service_x.htm. Note on the bottom how a person is quoted as saying: "Community service is not fun — no matter how charitable it sounds." I strongly disagree, and doubt that the person who said that has any idea about the power of community service. But maybe that's the entire purpose of doing what we do here at the Hope for Stanley Foundation. Come to New Orleans, I promise that your efforts will not only be charitable and deeply appreciated, but that they will be life-changing (no court-ordered sentence is required).

Horacio Ruiz

Bright lights for the future in the wake of the storms

2008-09-29T00:08:00.000-05:00

Nellie Langeland is a student-athlete graduate from Tulane University. She is currently a graduate student in the DeVos Sport Business Management Program at the University of Central Florida. The article below was published in the Orlando Sentinel.

I watched anxiously in early September as Hurricane Gustav bore down on the delicate infrastructure of New Orleans, the city that captured my heart.

As Gulf Coast residents fled Gustav's "cone of uncertainty," I was taken back three years to the start of my junior year at Tulane University, and my own flight from Katrina. As I sat in the contraflow traffic, I was unaware that I was embarking on the start of a defining journey for me, and my country.

Having lived in the Gulf South, two years in New Orleans, hurricanes were a part of my life. But everything changed as I watched the breached levees drown the city and the ensuing chaos. I spent a semester displaced at Texas A&M University and returned to New Orleans to finish my education as the city rebuilt.

It was trying to live in a place where entire blocks of homes had been washed away, and everyone had a personal story of loss, some more devastating than others. Over time, however, life crept back into the city, and armies of volunteers came to work alongside residents to restore the city. I graduated last May to return to my storm-battered home state of Florida, leaving a new New Orleans, with a buzz of hope and a glimmer of what the future might hold.

I had witnessed the emergence of a remarkable spirit, an esprit de corps shared by residents and volunteers compelled to reach out to their fellow Americans. At the forefront were students and young professionals fueled by civic mindedness and an entrepreneurial spirit.

Thousands of young people came to build and chart a new course for the city; these young entrepreneurs have been connected through the New Orleans YURP (Young Urban Rebuilding Professionals) Initiative. Some joined Americorps or Teach for America, or they founded their own organizations to build a sustainable city. They have focused their education and entrepreneurial spirit to rebuild and renew New Orleans.

Because many of my generation grew up in economic prosperity, we have been called by some spoiled and ill-prepared to take the reins of the country. But Katrina's YURPs are socially conscious, entrepreneurial and innovative, displaying a new and rejuvenated brand of the American spirit on which our country was founded.

The government's response to Katrina was deemed one of the great American failures, but it has been a defining experience for my generation. The response of my peers is inspiring and a testament to a revival of the American spirit that will carry us as we take on the future. The Gulf Coast is a vulnerable home front, but the challenges have created a training ground for future leaders, and many have responded to the adversity.

I consider myself an ambassador for the city of New Orleans, and I have tried to spread the word that rebuilding continues. But it is also important for people to see the silver lining, because the spirit that brought thousands of young people to rebuild is the spirit that can carry America into the future.

The state of the economy and energy and the loss of life abroad have bred concern for the future of America. But today, the social entrepreneurship of young leaders such as New Orleans' YURPs offers hope for the future, exhibiting a compassionate energy unlike the malaise Jimmy Carter diagnosed in 1979, when he proclaimed a "crisis of confidence" in America.

Hurricanes will always threaten our coasts, but there is light after the storm. Tropical winds have been followed by the winds of change, blowing a new spirit into a city and country in need of rejuvenation.

Nellie Langeland
DeVos Class of 2009

Making It Right

2008-09-21T19:11:00.013-05:00

Horacio Ruiz
Hope for Stanley

I wanted to post some pictures on the blog about the Make it Right Foundation. It was a foundation started by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie that committed to building 200 homes in the Lower Ninth Ward. They committed toward building Green Homes that were energy efficient and had less of an impact on the environment by using solar power and by using rain water. The homes are also elevated and have escape hatches on the roofs in case of another catastrophic flood resulting from the breach of a levee.

Residents are excited about the homes. They say, and in my opinion I have to agree, that New Orleans is going to have a community unlike anywhere else in the world, just as it did prior to Hurricane Katrina. The homes are a sight to behold in the devastated area. They look out of place, there is no doubt about that, but they are definitely a welcome sight. People will move into these homes and rebuild their lives.

Only a few days ago I met the man pictured to the left. His name is Robert Green and he is living in a trailer by where all these Make it Right homes are being built. He is going to have one of those Make it Right homes built where his trailer currently stands. He has a gravestone for his mother and granddaughter in the front yard, which he will keep when his new home is built. Green's mother and granddaughter were on the roof of his old home when it was flooded and swept away when the Industrial Canal levee was breached. He watched his granddaughter and mother drown. Green has made mistakes in his past, but he has now become an activist in the Lower Ninth Ward. He has been pictured with Brad Pitt and Jet Li at public functions and has had stories about him published in NPR, PBS, the Los Angeles Times, and CNN, to name a few. Here's hoping that Green's wounds heal with time, and that he continues to positively impact his community.

The third house pictured from the top is my favorite that has been built so far. The contractors also planted cacti in the front yard and the surrounding space. I spoke to one of the contractors responsible for spraying green-based insulation and he had nothing but good things to say about the buildings. Obviously, he is benefiting from the contractor work, but he really spoke about the cost savings that the residents will benefit from and he also spoke about how solidly the homes have been built so that they should be able to withstand some extreme weather conditions.

Following on the green-based initiative in the Lower Ninth Ward, some kind of futuristic playground was also built in the Lower Ninth Ward. For lack of better words, it was pretty cool. There weren't any kids at the playground when I visited, but that just gave me more space to run around. The playground does provide an interesting visual, I only hope that there will be kids that can soon enjoy running around these unique structures. There's no doubt that people are hard at work to bring back the Lower Ninth not just better than ever, but better than anywhere.

Brenda Dupree and Her Brother

2008-09-16T15:51:00.006-05:00

Today I met Brenda Dupree. It wasn't the first time that I introduced myself to her, but it was the first time that I really had the opportunity to meet her. Hope for Stanley is trying to help her move back into her home. She spoke to me about how, before the storm hit, she loved to sit in her front porch and enjoy the shade it would provide, and how she would watch people that live in the Lower Ninth Ward pass by and it would let her think about the past and about her future. We sat together for a while on the steps of her front porch, and struck up a conversation with a lively carpenter that is working to rebuild the area. We also talked about the event decoration business she used to own and her ties to the neighborhood. She told me her father was the second person to live in the entire Lower Ninth Ward, when it was just a huge cow pasture in the early 1900's. The shade in her front porch was nice and cool, and just like she used to, we reminisced about her past and talked about her future aspirations. The only difference I could tell, and it is a big one, is we didn't watch too many people that live in the Lower Ninth Ward passing by. It was, and still is, empty.

Students from the 2009 DeVos Class first met Brenda and they've rallied around her by cleaning up her property and working to get her back inside her home. I'm proud of them for that. Brenda is in the middle of the picture, surrounded by members of the 2009 Class. I looked inside her home and she is so close to moving in. She was able to use Road Home money to refurbish most of her home, but it was not enough, and the construction came to a halt. But she is moving forward, and so are we. Betty Stewart, the beautiful and gracious wife of Stanley Stewart, is working to get Brenda some free sheet rock through All Congregations Together (ACT). And I'm trying to see if we can get her some free labor through other non-profit organizations.

I also met Brenda's brother, Sammy. Sammy used to be a school teacher and taught special ed, telling me that he always wanted to be a teacher and didn't care if it wasn't the highest paying job. He didn't do things for the money. He showed me his gutted home, still devastated from the storm. Brenda told me his health is in decline, and I could see some signs of that from his slow shuffle and his heavy breathing. But he has a dream to move back in his home, and he has this idea that if he can just put a fence around his property and install a gate on the front door of his home, then he can install an air conditioning unit and move back into one of his rooms. Then he'll slowly build his home one room at a time, one wall at a time. He plans to save the $750 he spends every month in rent to buy building materials. He told me he appreciated everything I'm trying to do, and I wish I could say that I've actually done something for him. I think to myself -- really hoping to myself -- that I've at least given him some hope and that it can make him feel better. I got in my car and left Sammy in his home, not sure of what he was thinking as he surveyed his battered home once again. I was moved by our meeting, and I will try my best to help him.

Horacio Ruiz
Hope for Stanley

The Work Continues

2008-09-12T22:37:00.001-05:00

By moving to New Orleans and officially accepting a position with Hope for Stanley, we (i.e., the NCAS, DeVos Program, and UCF) have made a commitment to the people of New Orleans. Helping a community and staying focused on what must be done is not easy, and it takes guts to say, 'We're here to help,' because then you will have people that will depend on you and look toward you for a sense of leadership and to get things done. I've sat back plenty of times and put my hands on my head and tried to grasp the amount of work that remains to be done in this area, and I lose myself with all kinds of thoughts.

But then I hear the stories and see the commitment and sacrifice from other people, and it gives me strength. I've met people that moved down here to work for $300 / month because they want to help the Lower Ninth Ward. I met a man who used his Road Home money to begin a project he's always dreamed about; a center for youth where they can have a place to go and enhance their education, play sports, and learn a skill such as carpentry. That man is still living in a FEMA trailer when he could have rebuilt his own home. I hope to help him by providing sports equipment for his youth center. I've volunteered side-by-side with Dr. Yun-Oh Whang, who had his home and possessions destroyed by a tornado, and only a little more than a month later was helping to rebuild homes in New Orleans. I've met the founders of the St. Bernard Project, and they inspire me to think about how great the Hope for Stanley Foundation can become.

It is our hope that athletes and sports administrators will embrace Hope for Stanley and recognize its importance. I believe that as much as we are doing for New Orleans, this experience gives volunteers a sense of self-empowerment. It gives them the idea that if they want to make something right, then they can just by showing up. I used to watch television and wonder how I could help people that suffered after a flood, tornado, or storm. And now I realize that it's very easy. All I have to do is show up and offer my services. I know I can be an agent for change by just deciding I am going to take things into my own hands. Hopefully, volunteers will leave New Orleans knowing that they can impact their own communities in the same way.

It is the goal of this blog to get people to write about volunteering in New Orleans and to put a voice behind their experiences. It will also serve to give updates on the latest developments at Hope for Stanley. I hope that this wall can become a collection of words and ideas that will continue to inspire young people from all walks of life, including myself and my colleagues.

Horacio Ruiz
Hope for Stanley

You Can Someday See It!

2008-09-12T22:28:00.000-05:00

As you read the grim news of events in the world, including wars, disease, natural disasters, and people acting in ways that can only hurt other people, it comes as a bolt of lightning when something of such enormous good as what happened recently in New Orleans takes place.

For those of you who follow the DeVos Sport Business Management Program and the creation of the Hope for Stanley Foundation, you already know that we began working in New Orleans in the Lower Ninth Ward in the rebuilding process after Hurricane Katrina. In December of 2006, we began to tear out the insides of the home of Stanley Stewart. Stanley became a symbol for us as the face of the people in the Lower Ninth. On the weekend of October 13 and 14 2007, my wife Ann, daughter Emily, ten students from the current DeVos program, a member of the Inaugural Class and her Mom and I converged at Stanley’s house to paint the walls of his recreated home.

We followed by a week the extraordinary efforts of Smitty Pignatelli, who was a member of the first trip in December. Smitty came earlier in the spring with a crew from Massachusetts to put a roof on Stanley’s house to stop the erosion inside. In the first week of October, he brought a group of 25 skilled electricians, plumbers, sheet rockers, and carpenters, who installed new plumbing electricity, sheet rock, floors, windows, doors, cabinets and appliances. In other words, they rebuilt Stanley’s house. Had this group have been charging for their normal services, it would have cost $15,000 a day, or nearly $90,000 for their labor. They also brought nearly $50,000 of donated material. I salute Smitty and his crew for their extraordinary dedication in helping Stanley Stewart’s family.

Now we pledge that the DeVos Sports Business Management Program, in conjunction with the National Consortium for Academics and Sports, will continue to build and rebuild homes in future trips that will allow at least some of the people who were wrenched away from their beloved City of New Orleans to return in comfort and safety.

I have never been more proud to work with any group than I have been with those who have devoted nearly six weeks of their time since last December. It shows that when you believe in what you can’t see, you can someday see it.

Richard Lapchick.

-Originally Posted October 19, 2007

When the Saints Go Marching In

2008-09-12T22:26:00.000-05:00

Written by Massachusetts Representative Smitty Pignatelli

The Hope for Stanley Foundation was formed by a committed group of 10 students from the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program at the University of Central Florida after their initial week of work in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans in December 2006. Those students and more than 15 other DeVos students made four subsequent trips to work in the Ninth Ward. While they worked on other homes as well, most of their efforts were on gutting the home of Stanley and Betty Stewart. The NCAS also had a group work in the Ninth. But on that first trip, in addition to the students and DeVos Chair Richard Lapchick, his wife Ann Pasnak and daughter, Emily Pasnak-Lapchick, two people from Massachusetts joined them: Allyce Najimy and State Representative Smitty Pignatelli. While the DeVos and NCAS families did all the gutting , clearing and final painting, what follows is the amazing story of how Smitty got the inside done to allow the Stewarts to move into their home.

This is the story of a family from New Orleans who inspired the new NCAS Foundation, Hope For Stanley. We met Stanley Stewart and his family at Christmas time, December 2006 in New Orleans, LA. They had just moved into their FEMA trailer after 16 long, hard months of pain and suffering caused by Hurricane Katrina. Stanley and his family of twelve are only alive today because they were able to escape the 14 feet of dirty water, to the second floor in their New Orleans Ninth Ward home. After spending two days without water, food, plumbing or air-conditioning, they were finally rescued by a neighbor’s small boat from the 2nd floor balcony. The boat brought the family to a bridge, where they had to walk 4 miles to the Convention Center, Stanley sent his family walking to safety without him, you see he was stricken with Polio at birth which made it impossible for him to keep up. After several days at the Convention Center, still not knowing where his own family was, Stanley stayed behind to help every last person board their bus to safety, before finally boarding the bus himself.

We have had a goal to move Stanley back into his 4 bedroom, 2 bath home in time for his wife Betty to cook Thanksgiving Dinner in her own kitchen and set her own table with room enough to host her whole family. We went to New Orleans as volunteers, helping to rebuild Stanley’s home and came back as agents for change believing in the power of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Thanks to the generosity of some Massachusetts Berkshire County volunteers, we were able to put a new roof on Stanley’s home in April and most recently the crew of 25 licenses contractors and carpenters went down to Stanley’s home and completed the rebuild of 1133 Tricou Street, the Stewarts Home in just 6 days. It was like our own version of “Extreme Home Makeover”. Instead of raising money for my political campaign, I asked people to help me raise money for my Campaign to help the Stewart Family move home. All of the materials were donated; floors, windows, cabinets, plumbing fixtures and sheet rock, the volunteers signed up without hesitation and because of the generosity of spirit of citizens in our county, Stanley and Betty now have a certificate of occupancy and will be moving into their home a month before Thanksgiving! There is much more work to be done but we know a small committed group of people truly can make a difference.

-Originally Posted October 15, 2007

Progress at Stanley's Place

2008-09-12T22:25:00.000-05:00

There is great news coming out of New Orleans in the world of Hope for Stanley! Smitty and his crew of fabulous do gooders has made great strides in the completion of the Stanley's home. Smitty will be writing a few posts as soon as he is back in Boston and near a computer. As of right now the only thing that needs to be completed at Stanley's home is a nice fresh paint job, and that will be done this weekend by some of the original crew that first met Stanley and his family. We will get you more first hand information as it becomes available.

Keep watching for news!

--Originally Posted October 11, 2007

Welcome to the Blog

2008-09-10T22:55:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the Hope For Stanley Blog!

We will update this blog on a weekly basis with news and stories about the rebuilding efforts in New Orleans and especially share information about the GREAT progress that has been made on Stanley Stewart's home since the Hope For Stanley Foundation became involved. We look forward to sharing with you and hearing from you!

UPDATE: We will be using a new URL address and will also be uploading some of our old posts from the previous site with the original dates they were published.