Boston College Athletics
Day 2: SAAC Service Trip in New Orleans
January 12, 2011 | Devlin Student-Athlete Formation & Succe
Jan. 12, 2011
NEW ORLEANS, La. - Our second day waking up in the dormitory style housing provided by the Annunciation Mission began with 6:30 breakfast for some and the option of sleeping in till 8 for others. My group, led by Ashley "with an E, cause it's a guys name" Jefferson, was assigned to leave a half hour later than the first. Coming off of a very long winter break, consisting of a whole lot of gym, tanning, and laundry, I opted to skip breakfast/ lunch making hour, held between 6:30 am and 7:30 am, to rest up for another day of mudding and sanding. Although I deeply regret missing pancakes, last nights gumbo, and grits, I was well rested for the arduous tasks that lied ahead.
We were greeted with a light dose of New Orleans rush hour traffic en route to the parish of St. Barnard, the county in which our work site sat. With the smooth driving of Ashley "self proclaimed best mudder" Jefferson we quickly navigated the freeway and arrived at a small brick home. At a glance it seems a strong standing one family home set on a large plot of land, but upon closer inspection a passerbyer would find a group of Boston College Athletes working diligently and playfully, repairing the gutted structure.
Our main objective for today was to finish the cornering and screw hole patching we had begun late yesterday afternoon. After a quick morning of taping the corners we set off the McDonalds across the street to enjoy some McNuggets (registered trade mark). At a very low price, Ian "the kid" Donahue proclaimed "it feels like were stealing from them!" during our hour long siesta. We returned back to the work site to find a million uncovered screws in need of covering. Dani and Molly, members of the woman's volleyball team, and myself worked on the ceiling screws while our vertically challenged group member made quick work of the walls. We wrapped up the day completing our task and cleaning up the site for as we all know "a clean workplace is a safe workplace."
With a second day of work over we were greeted with our second night's activity: The Boys and Girls Club of New Orleans. A local community center, the club is an afterschool location for the youth of the surrounding area, providing a nurturing environment where the kids are immersed in activities from computer skills to free for all football. Briefly reunited with the other half of the total BC group we once again split up and diverged amongst the kids. For what seemed like the flashiest of flashes BC athletes helped in academics, computers, and various field sports. Jumping on the opportunity to play football I joined the chaotic game where the only rules were have fun and don't crush any six year olds. The game flew by and we once again had to split into our vans, this time it was to return to the mission for dinner and rest.
Your truly. - Big D Grosso
