Student Helps Rebuild New Orleans

Jillian Cunningham works on a previously damaged by the hurricane.

For one week, senior Jillian Cunningham put her summer in the New England sun on hold to soak up a completely different experience. Along with close to 20 other members of the Melrose Highlands Congregational Church, Cunningham traveled to New Orleans to help rebuild the city that is still suffering three years after Hurricane Katrina. 

While this was her second trip down South, Cunningham was warned not to expect much change from the year before.

“When I went down to New Orleans for the first time, I saw the people who had been there before and how shocked they were that nothing had changed,” says Cunningham. “So this time I prepared myself for more of the same.”

But things had slightly improved in the year that the church members had been away. During her first trip, Cunningham and the other volunteers focused on demolition of houses that had been heavily damaged. This year, they were able to concentrate on rebuilding. The volunteers split up into three groups and worked on three projects, including fixing up a local church.

Cunningham spent her time re-plastering a woman’s home, a project that was done incorrectly by those who were there before her. After a week of reconstructing, the house was ready to be painted.

All of them left having improved all they could. Cunningham, who is graduating in the spring and hopes to be accepted into the physical therapy graduate program here in fall 2009, isn’t sure whether or not she will return to New Orleans. But she does have some advice for those who are considering paying a visit.

“Even if they can’t volunteer, they should just go to see the city,” she says. “It thrives off of tourism so it would really help the rebuilding, and it’s a really amazing place to go.”

- Devonne_Sutton

Cunningham, left, and other volunteers gather around the owner of the house they worked on.