Saint Mary's students spend their Spring Break assisting in the relief effort. Read post-spring break reactions...

Welcome to the SMC Student Relief Workers web site and photo journal! 24 students, 2 instructors (Shawny Anderson and Marcia Ong), and one fearless bus driver spent January Term 2006 in New Orleans, participating in direct hurricane relief.

They completed more than 4000 hours of direct service, including:

• Clearing or recovering salvageable items from 23 homes, making most of them eligible to receive FEMA trailers as the owners begin to rebuild.
• Clearing a church, so that it can be decontaminated and restored.
• Helping to prepare a school to reopen.
• Preparing a community theater, an art gallery, and a thrift store to reopen.
• Recovering lost boats and a trailer on the gulf coast of Mississippi.
• Assisting in restoration of three city parks and monuments.
• Restoring and conducting soil tests in eight community gardens so that neighbors or market gardeners can replant.

We have posted our daily journal and photos in the Photo Journal section. This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Please read some of our reflections from our personal journals.

Student Relief Workers

Allison Arkfeld	Kayla Banion	David Blanchard
Fernando Campos	Arthor Curley	Vanessa Fortney
Stephanie Franci	Jed Friedman	Elijah Galarza
Rachel Gaynon	Brianna Hardy	Elvia Hernandez
Shane Keane	Feke Lauti	Mallory Lee
Hugo Leon	Jorge Mejia	Salvador Ortiz
Emily Robbins	Courtney Smith	Vanessa Snyder
Lindsay Swoboda	Janeva Tollison	Chris Verrips (Assistant)
Justin Verrips	Casey Wilson