Gulf Coast Clean-Up: The Need Continues by Marissa
Kuperschmidt
This summer, I participated in Mitzvah Corps of
the South (MCS). For two weeks, July 20 to August 3, I, along with
29 other high school students from around the country, traveled to
New Orleans to volunteer and to try
to help rebuild the city. I did things I
never thought I would do, and I met some of the
most amazing people, whom I hope to keep
in touch with for the rest of my life.
In New Orleans, we volunteered with four
different organizations. The first week, I spent most of my time
with an organization called Common Ground Collective. We cleared
overgrown lots of abandoned homes using machetes, hedge clippers and
two lawnmowers. We also went out to the Lake Pontchartrain wetlands
so we could plant grass to prevent erosion. All of the people at
Common Ground are volunteers and they are mostly in college or just
out of college. They are very passionate about what they are doing,
which I think made my experience all that more beneficial. One of
the days, though, I was able to help the Children's Defense Fund at
its Freedom School. I played Monopoly with ten year olds and
hopefully made their day more enjoyable. At the end of the first
week, we traveled to Utica, Mississippi for Shabbat at
URJ Camp Jacobs. We spent the night with the campers and
attended their Shabbat services. That first week was
a great start to the rest of my trip.
During the second week, I mostly volunteered
with an organization called Beacon of Hope. It is probably one of
the more well known organizations in New Orleans. Again, I was able
to clear more overgrown lots. On one of the days, though, I painted
an entire exterior of a house that belongs to a survivor from
Hurricane Katrina and who told us the story of how he evacuated and
then was able to return to his home. At one point, our MCS educator,
Matt Dreffin, was on the roof painting with the owner of the house.
When Matt came down, he told all of us that the owner thanked
him so much and actually began to cry a
little. That moment made all the hard work I had done
worth it. To have touched someone that deeply
is what I came to New Orleans to do.
Tikkun olam, or repairing the world, was the
goal of our trip. Even though we were there for just two weeks and
accomplished so much, there are still years worth of work
to be done. The area is again in the
news because of Hurricane Gustav and, so once again, there is
work to be done. Our small steps hopefully
paved the way for the bigger ones to come.
RELATED
QUESTIONS
What can you do to
help? When we left
each worksite, we always asked what we could do at home to help.
We got the same answer each time: SPREAD THE WORD. People think
that because Katrina is not talked about on television or in the
papers that it
is old news and everything is taken
care of. That is not the case. While it had been three
years since Katrina, there was still work to be done and
even
more since Gustav. The more we remind people that there
is WORK to be done, the sooner people will go
down there to help. Don't forget what happened, and if possible try to
get down there to help.
What is it like to
meet people from all over the country? The people I met on
this trip were people I admire now and I always will. They have
become some of my closest friends. I talk to a lot of them almost
every day, and we continuously talk about how much we miss each other and want to go back. They
were unlike any of the people I am friends with at home,
and that is great. We have a special bond that no one can take
away, and I would not trade that for anything. I have
hopefully made friends that are going to last for my entire
life.
TAKING
ACTION
Temple youth groups and schools
can do a lot to help New Orleans in their time of need. A lot of
these organizations, especially Common Ground Collective, do not
have a lot of money to buy supplies to use for work. Youth groups
could raise money to buy things such as lawnmowers, weed whackers, and
other gardening supplies to help them out. When I was there,
they only had two lawnmowers that were in bad condition, eight machetes, and
a few hedge clippers. If they had more and better supplies, they could
accomplish a lot more. People could also donate clothes, food,
and living supplies to homeless shelters that still house
evacuees.
Teenagers currently in grades 9 to 11 can
volunteer next summer with Mitzvah Corps of the
South. They will have the most amazing experience of their
entire life. They will hear survivors' stories, meet other
wonderful teens from all over the country, and do things they never
thought they would. How many seventeen-year-old girls can
say they used a machete? The people in New Orleans need help, no
matter how big or small. If you
get a chance, these groups need all of the volunteers they can
get.
FOOD
FOR THOUGHT
What is our obligation, as teenagers, to give
back to New
Orleans and other
communities in
need?
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR
Marissa Kuperschmidt
is a senior at Eastern High School in
Voorhees, New Jersey. She attends Temple Emanuel in Cherry Hill, New
Jersey.
Copyright 2008
Union for Reform Judaism
Produced by the URJ Department of Lifelong Jewish Learning
and Youth Division.
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