PROACTIVE COLLEGIATE EFFORTS TO HELP REBUILD NEW ORLEANS FOLLOWING HURRICANES KATRINA AND RITA

New Orleans is struggling to regain financial and structural stability following hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. Los Angeles Valley College offered a unique opportunity for students and faculty to actively contribute time and muscle toward this goal during spring break 2007. Twenty-one Los Angeles Valley College students and faculty embarked on a journey to help rebuild homes in New Orleans with Habitats for Humanities and contribute to the massive rebuilding efforts. The Los Angeles Valley College group complemented the Habitat for Humanities volunteer work by assisting elderly residents in filling out complicated government paperwork and participating in daily cultural and environmental excursions to observe the hurricane damage.

In addition to learning new skills such as building a fence from scratch, landscaping virgin earth, mapping out measurements for walls and closets, and reinforcing damaged porches, the students and faculty at Los Angeles Valley College learned the importance of building a community. Before Hurricanes Katrina and Rita ravished New Orleans, local community and large-scale projects such as the Mississippi River Tributaries Project (MR&T) were contributing to wetland conservation and clean-ups. Today New Orleans is bustling with small and large groups from around the world, geared toward making a colossal difference before another severe hurricane strikes the city.