Teen NOLA Trip – Day One

Assistant Director Carla Kopf shares news from the first day of our teen service learning trip to New Orleans.

Our first day in New Orleans was a full one: full of new experiences, full of learning ,and also full of fun. Our teens worked with their hands and cleaned up a garden, fertilized plants, put new plants in the ground. For some of them it was the first time they’d ever done this sort of work!

We saw the remains of many homes in the Lower 9th Ward that were severely damaged by the floods after hurricane Katrina, and they have not been touched in over six years. We visited a community center in the same neighborhood as well. It is a tremendous help to the small community that is still around. We heard the stories of two men who lived through the floods and never left New Orleans, and we learned about what they have been doing for their community in these past six years.

Finally, we relaxed a bit by walking around the French Quarter, enjoyed sweet snacks and tried on a lot of masks….

Look at our pictures. We are all having a wonderful time and learning a ton.

More to come tomorrow…

(See the pics below.)