Tara Meinck

The Habitat for Humanity trip to New Orleans has been a great opportunity to make a difference in a community that is still trying to piece itself back together. It is great that Mack commits so much of his time and resources into this project and extremely rewarding to see our efforts, combined with those of students from other schools, directly enabling his vision; a safe haven for the community and a center to which it can turn to. At first, the project seemed very overwhelming because there was still so much that needed to be done in order to get the Village into a functioning condition. Without any given instruction it was hard to know what to do.  We had a reflective discussion and decided that we should not wait to be given instruction because it was apparent what needed to be done and impossible to tell over 60 people what to do at every given time, we had to take the initiative. After that, the trip has become much more enjoyable because we are able to do things that we enjoy and get more done. Today we got so much accomplished; organizing a library, painting furniture, making the community center safer to visitors, etc. It was great to see how well everyone’s work flowed together without any instruction. It really changed my ideas on how to be a good volunteer. It is sometimes more important to be innovative than to be told what to do and it’s more fun too. 

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.