What a whirlwind this has been! Last night, Andy Baker made a huge batch of crawfish for his bayou volunteers and all other interested neighbors and volunteers – which was originally set to occur at the Bayou platform, but was moved to the Village due to threatening rain – what a scene! Tables surrounded by neighbors and volunteers alike slurping and crunching on massive amounts of delicious, steaming crawfish with potatoes, corn, onions, and garlic – with just enough spice to make your lips burn. At one point, after toasts to several groups and individuals, the entire crowd of 150 or so people started chanting “Mac! Mac! Mac!..” (as Mac was in his office meeting with a youth group interested in partnering with the Village) when he finally heard us. He got a big grin on his face, waved and got back to his meeting. When it was all over and done with, there were a few folks remaining. One volunteer asked me if they could help clean, and within one minute, I had 10 folks cleaning, sweeping, moving trash, spraying tables, etc. Organizing 100+ volunteers during our days here, made a single simple task very easy to get done.
My lovely wife, Sarah, has been such an enormous help to me and us! She has taken on responsibility as the volunteer/project coordinator – the much needed connective role between Susannah and my work! While I run around, answer calls, decide on action, pick up supplies, deliver people, etc – and Susannah works through schedules, lunches, brochures, contacts, etc – Sarah calmly sits by the entrance of the Village, ready to meet and direct volunteers to job sites or necessary time-filling tasks until we decide where to put them for the day. She has really saved us a huge amount of stress and struggle this week, and made volunteers much less impatient. Today, while driving to the Village, Sarah and I fell into a conversation about Mac’s dream of having a basketball court. Andy indicated that there was money leftover from the boil last night, so we started wondering aloud at how much a movable goal would actually cost from Target or somewhere. I spoke with Mac on the subject when we arrived, and he excitedly informed me that someone was bringing him one today or tomorrow! With that said, we had five volunteers today who jumped at the opportunity to clean a section of the floor and measure/research/paint a half-court court onto the Villages gritty concrete floor. No goal or ball yet, but the court is prepped and ready now!
We had 73 (or more) additional volunteers (mostly Hillel and a Christian group) show up on top of our 48 today! Despite wet conditions from last night’s rain, we easily deployed them on over half-a-dozen work sites. That put today’s total number at over 115 volunteers at work in the neighborhood: some working with homeowners, changing bulbs with Greenlight NOLA, installing radiant barrier and weatherization programs with Alliance for Affordable Energy, deconstructing and reconstructing at 5200/5116/5115 Dauphine, sanding/weeding/power-washing the Delery Street Playground, and planting trees in recently cleared lots.
I wish I could write down everything that’s happened, and I wish I had the time and energy to see all of the needed projects through here! It saddens me to know that starting tomorrow I have to make people start bringing tools back from sites and shutting down our great first Historic Green event. The wheels are already turning for next year, and I am seriously considering leading a small troupe of people back in the fall for a smaller and less thoroughly planned volunteer event. This has been everything I dreamed it would be and more: Partnership and Providence in action! Leaving more “dots” connected in our wake than I can count, creating lasting in-roads for people who had not seen a path to assist here, and watching people leave with big plans for their own next steps back to the 9.
By Jeremy Knoll
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