During Winter Intercession, 76 Ohio University students spent a week in New Orleans, aiding efforts to repair devastating damage by Hurricane Katrina.
OU's Campus Crusade for Christ organized the trip but it was open to all OU students, said Alissa Bramsen, one of the trip's leaders. The students left Athens Nov. 30 and returned Dec. 9. The opportunity to help hurricane victims was an answer to Bramsen's prayers, she said.
I was very interested in finding a way to help
Bramsen said.
The volunteers spent the week at the Good News Camp in City Park, a central location in New Orleans, Bramsen said. They slept on cots in one large tent, with a curtain dividing guys and girls, volunteer Erin Conry said. Since the water was unsafe, they had to rely on bottled water. The volunteers spent about eight hours a day working in the area, but had to return to camp around 6 p.m. because of military curfews, Bramsen said. Her group built a house with Habitat for Humanity, organized a clothing distribution center, cleaned up buildings, did evangelism work and prepared and served food to local residents, Bramsen said. They also helped out at a free store that distributed clothing and groceries.
Sophomore Katie Withrow said she liked looking when you're serving food at who's coming through the line
adding that the rich, the homeless and the volunteers ate together.
New Orleans did not look the way she expected, Bramsen said.
In the town I live in
we have had floods before
she said. When I pictured it in my mind
I thought
'It's probably devastating
but on TV they always show the worst areas.' Then she visited the Ninth Ward, the site of the levees' break.
Complete homes had washed away
she said. (There were) cars on houses
house on cars
