Busy on the bayou
Senior aids in New Orleans hurricane relief
Erick Horrmann
Issue date: 3/9/06 Section: Student Life
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Nearly four months after the destruction, senior Rachel Onken, sought out a program at the University of Minnesota's YMCA called Immersion, which was putting into effect one of its many trips that gives students a chance to explore social changes.
Although the New Orleans excursion was the organization's first service-based trip, the group is sending more people this spring.
The organization plans to do more service-based trips, said Alyson Mohan-Lucas, a student at the U of M and one of the leaders of the New Orleans trip.
"Immersion is student led and student run," she said. "Basically we take some issue that people could gain more knowledge from and then take a look at it."
Onken said she sought out the organization because she always was concerned about issues, but felt like there wasn't much she could do about it.
"I thought this trip was really something that I could do that would do some good," she said. "It also gave me a chance to actually serve, and people (are) actually getting results."
Leap of faith
One of the main reasons Onken wanted to take the Immersion trip to New Orleans was because of her strong religious background.
"I've always been taught to serve others in need," she said. "When I left I felt called down there. The opportunity was there for a reason."
Onken's experiences in New Orleans taught her a lot about her own faith, as well as helped strengthen the faiths of the students who also went on the trip, she said.
"A lot of people had changed their views on God (during the trip)," she said. "You look at people who have lost everything, but still have such a positive attitude."
The trip
Onken left Jan. 3 for New Orleans and arrived at the group's first work site, Camp Whispering Pines in Independence, La., the next day.
At Whispering Pines, the group organized relief materials, including food, and distributed them relentlessly the entire time they were there.
"The first thing they told us when we got started was that the people coming to get the supplies and food were no different than us," she said, "and that we shouldn't treat them any differently."
The team then moved on to Joy Fellowship Church in Slidell, La., Jan. 6.
"It was really amazing to see people's gratitude toward our help," Onken said.
After Joy Fellowship, the group headed for their last site, Lutheran Disaster Response in New Orleans, La.
During their stay at the volunteer shelter, provided through Lutheran Disaster Response, they gutted homes, which included wearing protective outfits.
The protective outfits included a body suit, respirator, latex gloves, work gloves and eye goggles.
Gutting homes involved removing everything from the house, including appliances, computers, clothing and carpets.
"This was the hard part because everything was soaked from the flooding, so it was twice as heavy," she said.
The team cleared the yard, removed all of the drywall and several layers of floors, took out the ceiling and removed nails from the walls.
"Rachel was a huge support group for us 19 people who went down," Mohan-Lucas said. "My co-leader and I were overwhelmed with logistics, and Rachel was really key on dealing with the hard issues within themselves."
Jenny Delaney, an Immersion coordinator and student at the U of M said Onken's attitude helped the team make it through the long days.
"Rachel was good at keeping on task and helping out with keeping the group on task," Delaney said.
Finally, the team bleached the interior of the house. The whole process took a total of three days, with the group working from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.
"It's incredible because many residents do not have enough money to hire crews, or else they don't have the physical strength to do the work," Onken said. "As a result, there is a huge waiting list of people who request that Disaster Response volunteers come out and gut their houses."
Seeing is believing
Onken said she wanted to go down to New Orleans to see the condition of the area with her own eyes.
"There's only so much the news can tell and show you," she said. "I can tell you that I was absolutely shocked."
A lot of work has been done in the New Orleans area, Onken said.
Clean-up crews, like the Immersion group, worked in an area know as the French Quarter, but there are still residential areas damaged that haven't received attention, she said.
Back home
Onken returned home Jan. 14 and even though the work she did was difficult at times, she said she doesn't regret what she accomplished down there, and would do it again.
"Work still needs to be done down there," she said. "I'm planning on going back next winter.
It's good that people are going down there, like over this spring break, but support has died down since. The people down there that need help are just like you and me."