A Student's Spring Break - Ashley Bry '09

Ashley went to New Orleans during Spring Break in 2006 and again in 2007 as part of a group organized by the university’s Community Service Learning office and led by Kathryn Wood, the associate director. Ashley returned two additional times on her own.

New Orleans. To different people it has different meanings. To businessmen it is conferences, to tourists it is culture, to locals it is home and to Spring-Breakers it is Mardi Gras and Bourbon Street.

However, to me it is a much different story; it is fourteen weeks that I will never forget. I had no idea what to expect and when so many people were in need of help, that didn’t matter to me. What mattered most was how I could help.

When I arrived I felt like I was walking blind into a battle. I didn’t know how big the other army was or how long it would last. All I knew is that I had come to fight and I was staying until we won. The ride from the airport was very long. I had never experienced anything like it.

It was hard to believe that America could ever look like this; the land of opportunity now looked like a third world country. Houses in middle of streets, street signs gone, roofs partly missing and cars sitting anywhere except where their owners left them. The area we worked in was a complete ghost town; windows were boarded up, parking lots were empty, and drive-thrus were abandoned. Houses were teaming with snakes, rats, oil, mud, mold, not to mention the smell of rotten food and stagnant water.

To think I wanted to come here for this.

Actually, working in the houses was my favorite part. Despite fatigue everyday, the one thing that kept me going was the homeowners. I remember one lady, Billie McDonald, who started crying as we drove up. She was so happy that we were there for her and had given up a week of our lives to help get hers back in order.

As we carried her things out of the house she cried a bit more, but no longer were they tears of happiness but tears of sorrow, for she knew everything she had once called home was completely ruined. As the day progressed Billie began to laugh about her life before the storm. It was obvious she was a different woman than we had met that morning. She could see the light at the end of the tunnel now and stood before her house that was waiting to be filled with life and love again.

The most amazing thing about that trip was the smile on each homeowners face at the end of the day, and by the end of that week they had taught me to love St. Bernard Parish the way they had.

Coming back to Redlands was very hard. I sat in class listening to other students’ stories of going to the beach everyday and knew that I had to share my experience with them so they would know that the New Orleans area wasn’t back to normal as the news said. I showed them pictures because as the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. But what happened to those people is worth much more than a thousand words.

So I went back again and again and again.

On my second trip, the Walgreens, Home Depot and a few gas stations had reopened. It was no longer the same ghost town I had seen just a few months before and that summer many people began rebuilding their homes. My final trip was this past spring break to rebuild houses; it was really exciting to see more people coming back and the city filled with life again. I know the battle isn’t won yet, but it is well on its way to being so.