A noteworthy last day

Our last day we volunteered at St. Bernard Community Center which was a great place that needed our assistance. The center is located in St. Bernard Parish which was hit harder by Katrina than New Orleans Parish, and the devastation is still apparent. The center has many different services we assisted with including a food distribution program, a clothing distribution site, hot meals on certain evenings, health care and food stamp counseling, and a common area where people can come check out books, go on the Internet, and just relax.
While at the Center we got to assist the staff in checking out the locals that came to pick up food, organize and put away 5-6 boxes of donated clothes in their little store, help some community members shop for clothes to take home, and some general maintenance they needed done around the center.

The staff was all very friendly and appreciative of us and shared their Katrina stories willingly. I feel we got a lot accomplished over the course of the day and we all felt the Center was definitely a worthy cause. The clients were all polite and thankful for the services so it was a pleasure to work there.

That evening Sidney treated us to a Southern delicacy, Craw fish and spicy potatoes. We all loaded into the 15 passenger van and headed to the store to pick up our lil fishy friends (with a few orders of Mexican food for the non-seafood enthusiasts) and then headed to City Park for a picnic with our spread. City Park completely under water after the storm, there is a sculpture garden, botanical gardens, museum, amusement park, and the oldest carousel in the country. It is really beautiful and a great place to have a picnic. The Craw fish is a 40 acre park that is the 5th largest in the U.S. and was were delicious and so spicy and flavorful at the same time...although quite a bit of work to get into. We decided that was half the fun of it.

After dinner we took a walk along Lake Pontchartrain to check out the levees and reflect on the trip. We are all sad to leave this place that has affected us deeply. It has been an amazing trip and I know upon returning home the memories and experiences will only grow more meaningful as we have a chance to process all we were able to accomplish. I want to thank Sidney for being such a gracious host, as well as Frank our driver & tour guide extraordinaire (pictured with us above). Another BIG thank you to Amber Tierney staff leader for being an amazing asset to the team, and the Student Life & Leadership staff that are so supportive of this new program. I also want to express my appreciation to everyone in our group, which turned out to be an amazing collection of people. Each and every student gave their all and was a pleasure to work with. I enjoyed getting to know everyone and all the distinct personalities we had that made the group whole, we worked as a team and I will truly miss them all...Team Cali will be a fond memory for me forever.