The 2009 New Orleans service trip was unforgettable. 15 Cal Poly students spent their spring break tutoring K-8th grade and painting the water damaged McDonogh Charter School in the Treme Neighborhood, the oldest African American community in the United States.

This area was under 5 feet of water after Hurricane Katrina. The Cal Poly participants interviewed faculty in the school to assess the needs for future volunteers. The largest need in this community is for English tutors. A large percentage of the students are at a very low reading level and their funding depends on leap test scores!

New Orleans is rich and culture and charm. The food is amazing and the architecture unique. Volunteering is a humbling experience that not only serves the community but opens your eyes to the larger picture.

New Orleans Service Trip 2009

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.

Rio Mar is my new idea of Heaven

Today the group had a free day to go explore and enjoy what the city of New Orleans has to offer. We started off taking the trolley down to the French Quarter which was super fun and convenient...hooray for public transportation! We walked around for a bit until it was time to meet Sidney and her partner Nick at his amazing seafood restaurant Rio Mar, ranked #3 restaurant in New Orleans.

We arrived at 12:30 hungry and excited, the restaurant is closed on Sunday afternoons so we literally had the place to ourselves. It was a true VIP moment when they arrived to unlock the doors and we all stepped inside our own private lunch party. We had no idea what we were in for, Nick asked us to take a seat and we eagerly waited for the meal to begin. What followed can only be described as un-describe able. Nick became the one man show in the kitchen wowing us with culinary delights that just kept coming, it was Southern hospitality at its finest.


There was a parade of food including ceviche, skirt steak, tapas, fried oysters, mussels, gnocchi, yucca fries, and so much more. Each dish was better then the last and the table was humming with enjoyment. For dessert it was mango cheesecake, flan, dulce de leche ice cream ad tres leches coconut cake...YUMMMMY! We all decided it was the best meal of our lives, and we could not figure out when we had died and ended up in Heaven...Thank you Nick & Sidney!!!!

After the meal we reluctantly left Rio Mar and headed back into the muggy streets of the FQ. We strolled around and saw the sights, taking in the beautiful architecture and history NOLA had to offer. The day was pretty much perfect...

Lacombe Crab Festival!

A true southern festival, the Lacombe Crab Fest was unlike any festival I have been too and soo much fun. We all loaded into the van with Sidney at 9:30 in the morning and started the hour long trek to Lacombe, which included a 25 mile bridge crossing over Lake Pontchartrain. This lake happens to be 1/2 the size of Rhode Island to put things into perspective, the second largest salt-water lake in the U.S. (after the Great Salt Lake in Utah) and the bridge is the longest in the world which was pretty impressive.


We had no idea what this festival would be like, and we were surprised to find carnival games, rides, a carousel, live bands on stage, and more southern specialties and seafood then we could have expected. There was everything seafood including craw fish, crab, shrimp, crab cakes, alligator on a stick, fried pickles, gumbo, jambalaya, etc etc. It was a feast! Sidney covered our entry cost and gave us a few tickets to enjoy the food, it was super nice. We were definitely the only Californians there, and we stuck out a bit...to say the least. It was a real southern cultural experience.
We all strolled about, enjoying the beautiful moss covered oak trees, and ate all the seafood we could handle. Amber and I made friends with a couple of older Cajun gentlemen that we ended up chatting with most of the festival. We sat with them while we enjoyed the live music and good company.

ARNO, Dragon Cafe & Tipitina's Friday Funk

Today the group spent the morning/afternoon at Animal Rescue New Orleans. Playing with the puppies, cleaning up cages, and doing other tasks that the organization needed. Everyone with a dog back home especially enjoyed this activity since we are all starting to miss our puppies while we are away.
After that the group headed back to St. George's to cook another meal for the community and enjoy the company of the staff. Once again, a great time was had for all.

That evening we watched act 2 of When the Levees Broke, and then ventured down the street to Tipitina's, a famous NOLA music joint. There was a free 18+ show so the entire group got to go out and enjoy the scene. It was a lot of fun, and we got to experience a real local hang out. Good times had all around!