Success StoryTeens Rebuild New Orleans



Teens Rebuild New Orleans

Author: Kimberly Ragland

Planning Unit: Boyle County CES

Major Program: Leadership 4-H Core Curriculum

Plan of Work: Leaders Develop and Expand Leadership Skills

Outcome: Long-Term Outcome

In the fall of 2017, the Boyle County 4-H Teen Club set a goal of traveling out of state to complete a community service project related to natural disaster relief in the southern United States.  Teens researched opportunities in disaster-stricken areas and communicated with relief agencies in both Texas and Louisiana.  After confirming participation with Rebuilding Hope in New Orleans and Rebuilding Together New Orleans, six teens made arrangements to  stay in New Orleans over their spring break from high school.  With two Extension staff members, the six youth traveled to New Orleans and teamed up with college students working with RTNO to work on two homes in Gentilly that had been severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.  The teens and staff spent three, 8-hour days sanding, spackling, priming, painting, cleaning, scraping, building and clearing the two houses and the lots and fences around them.   RHINO provided the group with a guided tour of the Lower 9th Ward and dinner at an antebellum home in the Garden District.  The group concluded with one day of sightseeing in the French Quarter and City Park neighborhoods of New Orleans.  All six participants reported learning new construction and painting skills they did not have before the trip.  All reported eating new foods, visiting new places, and experiencing a culture with which they were unfamiliar.  All reported deep satisfaction with their contribution to the families they worked for during their trip.  All reported they would definitely participate in such community service again in the future and that they were very confident in their own ability to make a positive difference in the lives of others through their own efforts. "I have never been outside of Kentucky very much and New Orleans was so different!  It was fun to meet people who talked really differently, but we had a lot to talk about because life is about the same stuff no matter where you live."  Another participant stated "That is the best I have ever felt doing community service.  (The homeowner) asked us to come back next year and see the house all finished and I really want to do that.  Even if we don't go in, I'll be proud to just drive by and know I helped make that happen.  I made a big difference in his life."






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