Rebuilding New Orleans One Visit at a Time

Advocate Networks Team Members Become VolunTourists to Help Hard-hit Community

VolunTourism is a novel idea that gives busy people an opportunity to combine travel, adventure, and service. Atlanta residents Wayne and Ann Webb became familiar with the concept when they were looking for ways to help the recovery effort after Hurricane Katrina. Wayne Webb had grown up in the Gentilly area of New Orleans, and his parents still live just across Lake Pontchartrain. His wife, Ann, grew up in the Lakeview area, another devastated part of New Orleans like Gentilly and the 9th Ward.

Shortly after Wayne Webb joined Advocate Networks in 2006, he attended a meeting where Advocate Networks leaders were brainstorming ideas for giving back to the community. Seizing the opportunity, Webb proposed a company-sponsored VolunTourism trip to the New Orleans area.

Methodist Church Ready for Rebound

“The goal was to show the local people some support,” Webb says. Webb and his wife had already made several trips to the Lakeview area of New Orleans, where they had been helping the parishioners of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church rebuild their flood-damaged sanctuary and nursery school.

The St. Luke’s property was inundated during the hurricane and remained flooded with up to 8 feet of water for weeks after the storm. Along with the physical damage, the church lost half its 200 family membership as displaced residents relocated to other parts of the country. Worship services for those who remained had to be held in a courtyard located on the church grounds, and electricity wasn't restored to the church complex for 9 months.

“About 80 percent of the homes in the greater New Orleans area had flood damage,” says Bonnie Happel, one of the church’s lay leaders. “A year and a half later, Lakeview is 30 percent inhabited, including people living in FEMA trailers.“

Advocate Networks Sends Team to Help

Advocate Networks co-founders and co-presidents Scott Fogle and Tim Wise had discussed going to New Orleans shortly after Hurricane Katrina. Wise had previous experience with Hurricane Hugo disaster relief – both wanted to help with the revitalization.

“We were ready to go,” Fogle says. “But FEMA said at the time it was too dangerous.”

By January 2007 conditions had improved and security was less of an issue, particularly for visitors staying in the New Orleans historic district. With support from Fogle and Wise, Webb organized a three-day trip to help with the St. Luke repairs.

They stayed in local hotels and ate in local restaurants to help the economy. The VolunTourists included Scott Fogle, Wayne and Ann Webb, Marco Kuysten, Gwyn Grafe, Bob Landstrom, Juergie Landstrom (Bob“s 13 year old son), Rick Smith, and Ryan Hankinson.

As soon as the team arrived, they got to work on multiple projects across the church grounds. By the end of the trip, they had scraped, primed, and repainted a wrought iron fence that had been completely submerged by flood waters, raised a new fence along one side of the property, painted halls in the church's nursery school, and identified the source of damage to the building's sprinkler system.

The Advocate Networks team also took a disaster tour of the area to see the storm’s effects first-hand. Everyone agreed the scale of the devastation is overwhelming and hard to appreciate from newspaper reports or even video footage.

“This is a long road,” Webb says. “People are fighting their way back and there are a lot of challenges.”

To find out more about the VolunTourist movement, go to www.voluntourism.org.