Cait Kelley (CK)

After meeting Mack for the first time back in October when he came to visit WPI, I was inspired by his story and the work he does, and have been so excited to come and see what the Lower 9^th Ward Village was really all about. Me and a group of 5 other friends in Habitat for Humanity decided to come down early to explore more of New Orleans before the rest of the group arrived. We got to see a Saints game, the Sugar Bowl, listen to great jazz on Frenchman Street, and see the world famous Bourbon Street. But even after all of these exciting things, I think one of my favorite parts of coming early was getting to hang out with Mack. We got to be his family for five whole days. Even more, seeing how the Village runs on a daily basis, meeting the few workers that come by every day, and getting to have a meeting with Mack to help him create his plan was great preparation for the group coming to meet us. We even got to make friends with the handyman, Slick, and he brought the six of us to his house for authentic New Orleans “soul food”.

At first glance, the Village is just a converted garage. But the more you look around and spend time here you feel the love and the deeper meaning behind the project. You see all the banners hanging on the wall and know how many other schools have put time and effort into this. You see all of the donated items that people brought to Mack hoping he could use them. While we were here someone even donated an entire duplex for free. It’s only a couple blocks away and the plan is to use it for more housing and offices. The entire community is behind Mack and the success of the Village.

But despite this sense of support Mack needs more help. He doesn’t have enough people here everyday to accomplish all of his ideas. Our group’s main task while we’re here is to clean out and reorganize all of the donations to make a workable space for the Village to continue to grow. As a group, we have also been making task and idea lists for our group and future groups to work off of to make the Village the best that it can be.  I truly believe this place will be the hub of the revival of the Lower Ninth Ward and we are the beginning. 

For more information about the Lower Ninth Ward Village please visit their website here and if you would like to make a donation, you can do that here.