NOLA 15
Saturday, November 7
10 years after Hurricane Katrina we are frequently asked: “Why go? Why do you still go down there?”
The answers are as varied as the number of volunteers who have traveled to New Orleans to help and the number of families we have worked for. We go because the need is still so great. We go because the damage wasn’t from the hurricane, but was man made. We go because of the injustice inherent in the system for helping people rebuild and return to their homes.
We go because, incredibly there are still homes standing empty, gutted down to the bones and bare studs of their structure, waiting. We go because neighborhoods and communities were destroyed and while we can’t heal them we can help one person, one family return. We go because of the relationships we have built with families, with facilitators and with the city itself.
This will be the 15th group we have sent down; and, incredibly, after 10 years we have one of the largest groups going since the storm first happened. There are 19 of us from UUAC Sherborn; we have 5 people joining us who have never been on our rebuilding trip before, including our Minister of Youth and Families, Rev. Heather Concannon. Two of our former Senior Youth who are now adults return with us. There are retired people and middle-aged people, professional builders and rank amateurs, but we all come with an open heart and a desire to help.
Tomorrow, we will be introduced to our project. While you all are gathering together to participate in the worship service organized by our Senior Youth Group, we will be hard at work living the covenant: Love is the spirit of this church and Service its law. This is our great covenant to dwell together in peace, to seek truth in love, and to help one another.