Boston College Athletics
Final Days Of BC Student-Athletes Mississippi Service Trip
January 19, 2010 | Devlin Student-Athlete Formation & Succe
Jan. 19, 2010
Day 4
We got to sleep in until 8 o'clock today - quite a luxury here in Poplarville. After a quick job moving supplies in the warehouse, half the group returned to Laurie and Cairo's to finish the painting from the previous day. The team worked feverishly to put the finishing touches on both bathrooms, a hallway and a mudroom. As a thank you for our work, Laurie cooked up a batch of her famous gumbo for us for lunch. Cairo lit a fire outside and we all enjoyed the gumbo and some wild stories from Cairo.
The other half of the group traveled with the Vtech to Pearlington, MS to assist in the clean up of a football field that was used a shelter for residents displaced from their homes. The group dismantled two enormous tents and our resident fire technician, Ian Donahue (sailing), got a fire going to burn the trash and other remnants from the shelter site. Our coordinator at the site, Rick, a resident of Pearlington, led the charge. We made great strides in reappointing the field so the kids in Pearlington could get back to playing on the field.
The group from Laurie's finished painting at 1:30 and hustled to Pearlington to help with the group's efforts. Upon arrival it began to rain and the work had been completed, but that didn't stop us from gathering around the fire to share some stories and laughs from the day.
Upon arrival back at the camp, Dominic had cooked up his jambalaya for us to enjoy. Cait Bailey (W-Track) took care of dessert for us, baking her favorite graham/marshmallow brownies. After a fierce game of catchphrase and a hilarious session of the Mafia game, the group got some shut eye for our big day in New Orleans.
Day 5
Another 7 am wake up saw us packing up to hit the road for New Orleans. Mattresses put away and sleeping bags packed, we returned the church to looking more like a place of worship than a hostel and hopped in the vans for the jaunt to New Orleans. Since we are still student-athletes, we got in a workout upon our arrival. The gracious staff at the Best Western we would call home for the night allowed us to check in at 10:30 to allow us to shower before taking on New Orleans. The site in Poplarville had two shower trailers that were in less than peak condition and would often break down, leaving some of our group with only one shower throughout the entire week. Yikes! After a hot shower, we headed to Tulane to visit with the Tulane Student-Athlete Advisory Committee to hear about their experiences during and post Hurricane Katrina. We noshed on pizza while we mingled with their SAAC group. With bellies full, we headed out on tour of campus. Jordan (M-fencing) has been a trooper all week on crutches after injuring himself in practice in December and continued to truck along on the long walk around their beautiful campus. After some quick group photos and information exchanged, we hopped in the vans and headed to Chalmette, on the other side of town, to visit CNN Hero of the Year award winner and Director of the St. Bernard Project, Liz McCartney (BC '94). Meeting with her truly reinforced what it means to be an eagle and Liz has embraced the mantra of Men and Women for Others and infused it in her work. This visit showed the contrast in damage from the New Orleans/Lower 9th Ward area and the central Mississippi area. While Mississippi coast area was flooded like New Orleans, the more central Mississippi area suffered severe wind damage, tearing off roofs and taking out entire neighborhoods. On our drive in, many of the homes and business still had a spray painted X on the boarded up door with other notations around it. Liz explained that the X on the door meant that the property had been searched. The other writing was a date and what organization did the search along with the number of survivors, the number of dead and any animals found inside. Seeing so many of the houses still marked emphasized the fact that there is still has a great deal of work to be done before everyone is back home.
Finished at the St. Bernard Project, we drove around the Lower 9th ward, getting within 25 feet of the levee that gave way, to see the absolute destruction of an entire area. While some houses had clearly been rebuilt, at least 70% were either abandoned and falling down or completely demolished and left a slab of land. The image many of us will take away from this short drive is the picture of a plot of land with nothing on it but a set of cement stairs that lead to nowhere that once led to the front door of someone's home.
From there, we headed back over the bridge and searched for parking for our two enormous vans - a tall order in a city with limited parking and a football team playing arguably its biggest game in franchise history. Once the vans were secure, the group had the run of the French Quarter for a couple of hours to get dinner and to pick up souvenirs for loved ones back home. The Saints pulled off a big win and the streets were packed with Saints fans boasting their famous saying "Who dat?!" - which even today, we aren't sure what it means. After dinner, we all met back at the vans on Canal St and found several members of the group in Saints gear and everyone wearing at least one string of beads. Once we were all present and accounted for, we headed back to the hotel for some shut eye before our 5:30 am (ouch) flight home.
An amazing week with an amazing group of student-athletes.
