Katrina Corps

For those of you who are into genealogy, the Katrina Corps was conceived early in December of 2006 and born on December 29, 2006 after three days of hard labor in Madison, Wisconsin. Not a very long gestation period.

Katrina Corps’s infancy and childhood have been a whirlwind of e-mails, conference calls, hurried trips to New Orleans…and lots of meetings: with existing volunteer organizations, with politicians, and most important, with ordinary citizens scattered throughout the beautiful, magical, historic, flooded and devastated Crescent City.

Now Katrina Corps is rushing through adolescence in eager anticipation of adulthood, where we will undertake the actual mission for which we were conceived: to support the people of New Orleans in their struggle.

We’ve learned a lot along the way. Several of our team had been to New Orleans on gutting missions. They did homework to find out how many houses needed gutting. Then they estimated how many volunteers it would take to accelerate the great work already being done by the organizations that have persevered since Day One post-Katrina. We arrived at the magic number of 25,000 volunteers to be recruited to gut 50% of the remaining waitlisted houses over the 5 weeks of Spring Break.

Many of us have lived through the 60’s, when “happenings” happened whenever and wherever passion prevailed. The Peace Corps is one example. The first March on Washington another. Hoping to unleash just such passion for our fellow citizens in New Orleans, we began planning to invite the young and mighty of America to New Orleans.

But, 25,000 volunteers? Here’s what we didn’t know: There simply aren’t enough available beds for even close to that number.

Here’s what we did know and didn’t get to work for us. In today’s celebrity culture, we needed a face, a presence. Much of Katrina Corps’ effort was triggered by Bono’s “The Saints are Coming” (depicting what should have happened but didn’t) and Spike Lee’s “Requiem” (depicting what did happen, but shouldn’t have). We hoped to find our way to either or both of them. (We got close when Spike Lee was in New Orleans for a book signing, but the phalanx of security around him, and the stipulation of ‘no talking” to him, and ‘no requests” of him, made it a surreal experience.)

Despite a myriad of well-intended efforts, and only one-degree of separation to others related to New Orleans, we’ve been able to attract media coverage without a “press magnet.” The people in New Orleans will tell you that Katrina Corps’message has resulted in more press than they’ve been able to generate in a long while – making new “news” out of old truths isn’t easy. The press coverage we have gotten has brought us genuinely caring people – college students, families, retirees – who want to be of service in New Orleans, and who might not have otherwise found a way to do it.

We’ve also met some surprising hesitation from some of the people we’ve met. In hindsight, this probably shouldn’t be so surprising. The good people of New Orleans have experienced two things: the silence of the country, and the presence of many people who have come and gone.

There is a fair amount of suspicion after 18 months of solitary responsibility and having come face-to-face with the most profound truth: the recovery of this city and this region has been on the backs of the people who live there complemented by the kindness of strangers. There’s been no centralized by-the-city, by-the-government effort. It’s been “by the people, for the people” from the beginning. As one resident told us, everything else has been “smoke and mirrors.”

With housing as the main challenge, we changed our focus from finding celebrities to finding beds. And we’ve found beds that have let some organizations expand their capacity, and have allowed us to make commitments to others in a neighborhood we’re now mutually obligated to.

It is accurate to say we’re scaling down from an “army of thousands” to a “strike force of hundreds.” This allows us to call one place home—-St. Vincent’s in the Garden District—-instead of being scattered throughout the City. We will be neighbors in a neighborhood instead of visitors in hotels. Our mission remains the same: to support the people of New Orleans in their struggle.

One of the other surprises has been the cynicism or ignorance about the real need in New Orleans. With the Saints in the play-offs, with Mardi Gras in full swing, with conventions filling the hotels…isn’t the city fixed? The answer is that the “brand” – the open-for-business part of New Orleans–has sufficiently recovered to support a stroll to Café du Monde for beignets. But the city? The city still very much needs us. All of us.

So, after all this, why would Katrina Corps even want to make this effort? The only answer we can give is that there is something in us–and in our U.S. of A.–that just makes us all neighbors. When your neighbors need support, you try to support them in any way you can. Simple as that. Granted, to some, we’re a little late arriving. Like most everyone else, we thought New Orleans’ recovery was well under way. After all, this is the mightiest and richest country in the world!

Since good neighbors must be willing to listen, we have been listening. Much of what we have heard can be summarized by what law professor Bill Quigley at Loyola University in New Orleans wrote:

“The future of New Orleans depends on those who are willing to fight for the right of every person to return. Many are fighting for that right. Please join in.

Some ask, what can people who care do to help New Orleans and the Gulf Coast? Help us rebuild our communities. Pair up your community, your business, school, church, professional or social organization, with one on the Gulf Coast - and build a relationship where your organization can be a resource for one here and provide opportunities for your groups to come and help and for people here to come and tell their stories in your communities.

Most groups here have adopted the theme - Solidarity not Charity. Or as aboriginal activist Lila Watson once said: ‘If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us struggle together.’

For the sake of our nation and for our world, let us struggle together.

There are also the words and the questions of Dr. George Amedee from the Southern University of New Orleans – whose campus today is a sea of trailers four blocks up from the “old campus” which is shuttered and devastated. Dr. Amedee had to fight to get back into his own neighborhood – which was threatened with bulldozing from the beginning. He has since compared the response to Hurricane Betsy (1965) to Hurricane Katrina (2005) this way: “After Betsy, the greatest aid went to the areas of greatest need. After Katrina, the greatest aid went to the areas of the least need, with the most potential for R-O-I – return on investment.”

So we of Katrina Corps have listened, both eagerly and humbly. We have learned that the people of New Orleans are both friendly and ferociously proud. They are independent and find it hard to ask for anything even in their hour of need. Fortunately for everyone, no one needs to ask permission to offer support to a neighbor. That’s what Katrina Corps is doing, simply offering our support to anyone who wants it in any form within our power. We know that power comes from will, and not the other way around.

We’re not asking for houses to gut unless they are offered. We are not asking for anyone’s blessing to offer free concerts because we are having these concerts solely to honor the efforts of our Volunteers and any neighbors that happen by. We are not in New Orleans to fuel any sense of self-importance. The only “ego” in the Katrina Corps is to value ourselves – and everyone else – equally. And to try to do whatever needs doing with the same ferocity that New Orleanians feel about their city. We want to struggle together.

All of us who call ourselves Katrina Corps Volunteers are here for the sheer joy and satisfaction of trying to save something worth saving, side by side with our neighbors. Only failing to try is failure. We will continue to try to invite the energy of America – and the energy of all Americans — to this beautiful and proud city. Impossible Is Nothing!