January 11, 2008

Contact:   Claire Potter

"The experience was very sobering. On one hand, we did something we could measure; but on the other, it was a drop in the ocean. I think we should close the college down for a week and caravan down there!" (Bill Lawing, J.  Estes Millner Professor of Music)

The Davidson College Symphony Orchestra and Jazz Ensemble went on tour during the first week of January throughout the southeastern United States. Because of the strong desire of the professors and students, the group of about 45 decided to take one afternoon to serve victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Matt Surdel ' 10 was instrumental in finding an organization that could use the short-term help of such a large group. The group worked with an organization called "Onsite Relief." The organization took the group to a sister organization, lowernine.org, whose volunteers camp out in gutted homes and work in the neighborhoods immediately around the homes.

The large group was divided into four smaller groups. In their different groups, the professors and students did work in homes at different stages of recovery. One group started the afternoon in a home and worked to complete the final details needed for the home to reach its occupany status. Next that same group moved to the neighboring house where they worked to finish gutting the home that had been filled with water up to the ceiling. The group removed all of the floors (saving some to be recycled), nearly 1000 feet of plywood subfloor, and all of the wiring.

"Almost every house still bears the tattoo of the process of going from one house to the next, surveying the number of living and dead people and pets, and painting the results on the front walls." (Bill Lawing)

Down the street, a group removed the primary structure beam of a home that was in danger of caving in. The group removed the rotted beam and replaced it with a new beam, allowing the home to be safe enough to have volunteers continue cleaning it up. Another group went to two lots that, prior to Katrina, contained homes. However, after the hurricane there was nothing left, and therefore the lots have been untouched since August 2005. The group worked to remove brush and weeds and make the lots neat and ready for use.

The last group moved throughout the neighborhood going door to door interviewing residents who had moved back about their experiences and their opinions about the relief effort. "I was surprised at how positive my interactions in the lower nine were. The people we interviewed had suffered considerable losses and their current living conditions were severely lacking. Yet they still had a positive attitude and were making the best out of their situation." (Josiah Rich '09) 

The group left feeling encouraged by the efforts they were able to put forth and the amount of change that they implemented in just one afternoon. However, they also felt a sense of despair for all of the work that is still left undone after all of this time and for all of the hurt that the victims have experienced and are continuing to experience.

"We only had three hours, but multiplied by 45 people, it was nice to see, on one hand, a measurable amount of work that we accomplished - but it is very easy to become very, very disheartened by the challenges when one multiplies our little neighborhood by tens of thousands of homes, which will have to be rebuilt one home at a time." (Bill Lawing)

Despite, the large amount of work left undone, the DCSO and Jazz Ensemble have put forth an effort to help the hopeless. Many of them want to return and do much more. If you would like to know more about the relief organization, "Onsite Relief," visit onsiterelief.com and do your part to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Posted By: Claire Potter