A home severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina barely stands in the Ninth Ward section of
New Orleans.

Walking into a classroom in Edgar P. Harney Elementary School in New Orleans, Elizabeth McMahon ’08 felt a chill go up her spine as she noticed the date still written on the blackboard – Friday, August 26, 2005, the last day students attended school before Hurricane Katrina hit the city on Monday, August 29.

McMahon was one of 23 Albright students who organized a trip to New Orleans to aid in the relief effort. The students left the day after Commencement.

Working with the national organization Hands on Network, the students spent a week gutting buildings, including homes and a school, knocking out drywall, removing mold and doing community outreach at a food bank, homeless shelter and animal shelter.

Funds donated by the United Way of Berks County, members of Albright’s Board of Trustees and the Student Government Association paid for their transportation, while housing was provided by the First Street United Methodist Church in uptown New Orleans. The students also raised money by holding a car wash during Alumni Reunion Weekend.

The devastation and destruction that McMahon witnessed was mind-boggling, she says. “It’s hard to put into words. Even when you saw it you couldn’t imagine what it would have been like to be there.”

With the Ninth Ward, the poverty-stricken area hit hardest by the floods, still in piles of rubble with houses on top of cars and boats on top of houses, Melony Alcorn ’09 says, “I was shocked to see how much still needed to be done.” Timothy Alabi ’09 described it as deserted and desolate, “like a nuclear bomb had hit.”

That’s why Michael Weekley ’09 went on the trip. “I knew there was a need for hands-on help. Where I couldn’t contribute monetarily, I wanted to help out with my hard work,” he says.

Hard work was an understatement. Wearing protective Tyvek suits, respirators, goggles and a helmet, much of the work was extremely physical. At the elementary school, McMahon says, “We took everything out – tables, chairs, books, desks, the teachers’ belongings, floor tiles…everything was damaged.” To date, only 20 out of 120 schools are open in New Orleans.

For McMahon, meeting Dee Shores, the owner of one of the homes that the students gutted, was a highlight of the trip. “She had given up hope and didn’t know what to do until we came to help,” McMahon says.

Thankful and extremely appreciative, Shores brought the students refreshments each day.

Accompanying the students and working alongside them were Tiffenia Archie, Ph.D. ’92, assistant academic dean; David Martin, D.A.’67, professor of economics and business; and Mike Miller, catering coordinator. The work was incredibly satisfying, but also grueling, Miller says. “My sweats sweated, that’s how hard we worked.”

Miller, Archie and Martin were all proud of the students’ work. “Everything you would hope an Albright student would exemplify was done beyond our expectations,” Miller says.

“It was an exceptionally proud moment for Albright.”

The students not only helped the people of New Orleans, they also learned a lot about themselves.

Melynda Silva ’08 says the experience really humbled her. She was especially moved by a talk given by James Huck, Ph.D., former Albright professor who now teaches at Tulane University in New Orleans.

“He came to speak to us while we were in New Orleans and he said, ‘When you are looking at everything you have and then at nothing that you have, you realize the only thing you have to hold onto is your faith, whatever your faith may be.’ I really took this advice to heart because it was so encompassing of the emotions and feelings of the people trying to rebuild their lives.”

Alcorn says it made her more grateful. “The people down there are getting by with next to nothing, and here I am complaining about not getting an iPod or some new clothes. It made me realize how lucky I am to have my health, family and a roof over my head.”

McMahon has already started planning volunteer activities for the 2006-2007 academic year and says she hopes to make a similar trip to an area in need an annual event.

Albright students gave more than 10,000 volunteer hours to this and other projects over the last year.