Principally Speaking...

News and Thoughts from Mansfield High School's Principal...

A Life-Changing Trip

It's hard to believe that it's been nearly five years since the Gulf Coast was forever changed by the devastation that was Hurricane Katrina. For the past three years, a special group of students and teachers have been making the trek to the region, pitching in wherever they could to help the ongoing relief efforts. This year's trip certainly was a memorable one.

Led by MHS science teacher Debbie Fournier, the group of 15 students set up camp in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, a small, rural, coastal town about an hour and 15 minutes east of New Orleans. The group stayed at the Mission on the Bay Camp, a self-contained camp for relief workers run by the Lutheran Episcopal Services of Mississippi. The group was fortunate to have as a guide Mr. Chris Lagarde, special assistant to Congressman Gene Taylor (D-Mississippi). Mr. Lagarde is also a Bay St. Louis native and has spent considerable time working with high school and college students serving as relief workers.

The students worked hard... very hard, removing debris from homes on Main Street in Bay St. Louis. They also worked in preparing houses for painting, performing the arduous task of scraping the shingles (as pictured above). Many of the homes in this devastated region are still abandoned, as people cannot afford to rebuild or insure their existing properties. As chaperone Leslie Gildersleeve points out, "Most people don't realize that the majority of FEMA funds went into rebuilding roads, bridges, and other infrastructure. Many everyday people are so dependent on volunteers to help them recover and restore. As a result, so many of the residents were so appreciative, constantly thanking us."

Mr. Lagarde also connected the MHS group with the University of Mississippi, with a major project to restore the delicate ecosystem by replanting the dune grasses in Biloxi. To be sure, a time-consuming but important task:

The group also had a unique adventure in clearing debris from a house that had been literally blown into the middle of a swamp. Unbelievably, this house was only discovered in March!

As a result, the students cleared pieces of the house crossing a makeshift bridge made literally from planks and plywood that was scattered:

The students had the opportunity to take in New Orleans one day, enjoying such historical features such as the French Quarter. Led by Mr. Lagarde, they also witnessed the areas that still have not recovered, such as the Lower 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish. They also noted the many oil, sugar, and coffee refineries that still are not up to speed.

Both the students and adult chaperones were struck by how warm and genuine all of the residents were. The residents of the area were consistently friendly and grateful, demonstrating how much they value the work of the students. While the students gained this new service learning, they also gained something more. As junior Justin Deckert, one of the 15 students, states, "We all gained a new perspective- that our community is so much bigger than just Mansfield. The people there were just like us, only that they have critical needs."

Once again, a job well done!

Now for the Rest of the (Gulf Coast) Story

 This an article published after the return from the Gulf Coast by Scott Brigante.

    The hastily prepared segment for the SCOOP gave you a mere snippet of what really happened on our journey to the Gulf Coast.  Many people have been asking us about the trip, so it’s a good time to give you a more complete overview.

    First and foremost, there wouldn’t have been a Gulf Coast Group without Debbie Fournier and Maria Vasilakos.  Debbie went last year and it was her energy and enthusiasm that provided the impetus to take another group this year.  Both she and Maria did most of the critical planning and organizational legwork to take this field trip from idea to reality.

    As for the trip itself, Gulf Coast Group members got up between 3:00 – 4:00AM to get to T.F. Green airport in time to catch the first flight out on Friday, April 17th.   Upon are arrival, we hit the ground running and this is what our week looked like (in approximate chronological order):

    At the airport in New Orleans, one of our group members was stricken with a stomach virus (and we got him directly to our camp to convalesce).  We were greeted by one of our project managers, Chris, who gave the group a tour of New Orleans.  The group traveled about an hour east to Bay St. Louis and Mission on the Bay.  Mission on the Bay is a camp for volunteers providing food, shelter, and logistical support to the Hurricane Katrina relief work.  Everyone settled in after a very long day of traveling.

    We started work the next morning and worked for six straight days on the following projects:

    We landscaped a yard for an elderly gentleman who had recently had his home (near the beach on the Gulf of Mississippi) rebuilt.  While the man wasn’t home at the time, a few of us ran into him the next day and he was very grateful to us for doing work that he was unable to do himself.

   We cleared debris from a catholic cemetery in a traditionally African American parish.  This job included some heavy lifting, as there was concrete debris in the pile we were assigned to.  This took a couple of hours. We drove to a jetty on the Gulf and dumped the clean concrete there to reinforce the structure.

    We prepared an abandoned building lot for the removal of construction and demolition debris (also known as “C&D”).  This required moving a large pile of lumber (much of it rotted) from the back of the lot out to the street.  We also cleared off the concrete slab that the house stood on before the hurricane.  This required gathering loose bricks and scraping linoleum tiles off of the cement. During this job, the man across the street, Mr. Ashton, brought doughnuts for us to eat and shared his harrowing story of survival with the group.  Mr. Ashton had to swim out of his house and cling to a piece of furniture for 3 hours during the height of the storm while his home was destroyed.

    We removed debris washed up on a beach on Cowand Point in Bay St. Louis.  This included removing a very large black tarp and a tank filled with sand.  Yes, we found a dead sea turtle that had washed  up on the beach during a storm prior to our arrival.  Our site manager had been asked by state agencies to document the turtle’s size, photograph the animal, and bury it so that a collector could not poach its remains.

    We did some yard work in the neighborhood of our project manager, clearing brush and working around his house as well as at other home sites.  It was clear that our host spends a great deal of time helping others and we were happy to be able to help him so he could continue doing his good work to rebuild the community.

    We visited the emergency operations center in Bay St. Louis, a building that used to house one of the first “separate but equal” segregated black schools in Mississippi.  The building looked as if it had been frozen in time at the moment the waters receded from the hurricane 4 years ago.  It was dark and eerie and filled with a hodge-podge of debris and emergency supplies as well as some potential hazards.

    We helped a woman whose list of misfortunes is too long to list here.  Her replacement home had been built but the remains of her FEMA shelter had to be demolished or moved and debris cleared.  She was facing pressure from the town to clear her property but she didn’t have the means to take care of it.  We spent several hours working on the site.  The homeowner came to the site to thank us personally for taking the time to help her out.

    We drove to a home in Louisiana to paint a barn structure that was under construction and set large posts into the ground as a frame for a chicken coop.  One of the interesting geological aspects of the Gulf Coast is that there are very few rocks in the ground – an alien experience for native New Englanders!

    On our last day of work, we split into two groups.  One group drove to a home that had been rebuilt by volunteers but needed a defective ceiling replaced.  We pulled the old sheet rock ceiling down and hung 9 new 4’ x 8’ sheets.  The other crew helped prepare the grounds of Mission on the Bay and the Christ Episcopal Church for a groundbreaking ceremony to rebuild the sanctuary that was swept away by the storm.  That crew also did some additional yard work at other sites.

    Along the way, the Gulf Coast group visited an ancient Indian burial mound, took in a small festival in the center of the still-struggling Bay St. Louis.  We ate lunch twice under the shade of a large “Shoo-fly” tree and in the shadow of a ruined town hall.  We experienced the best of southern cuisine and the worst of camp food.  We suffered bumps and bruises and sickness (One student and one teacher were stricken with a viral infection) and the incredible swarms of biting bugs.  Through it all, the 15 young men and women of Mansfield High School worked hard every single day and made their 3 teacher chaperones extremely proud.  There were a number of times when we were stopped by local residents and thanked for helping – even if we weren’t working directly to help them.  They also told us their stories of surviving the storm and the tangle of paperwork and obstacles they face in rebuilding their lives. It was a humbling experience that none of us will ever forget. 

    We have so many people to thank for their support.  Let’s start with you, our colleagues.  Through Dress Down Friday donations, raffle sales (most of that income came from teachers and staff) and individual monetary and raffle item donations, the faculty and staff of Mansfield Schools raised hundreds of dollars to help us make this trip possible.  The families of the students in the Gulf Coast Group was exceptionally supportive and represent the kind of compassion and caring that make Mansfield public school students so special.  Our community business partners and community organizations stepped up in a big way to help fund the trip.  Sue Molinda and the health office staff helped us prepare for any health situations while we were on the road.  Mary Tierney did so much to support our efforts that she will always be an honorary member of the 2009 Gulf Coast Group and we will always be grateful to her.  We thank Brenda Hodges, Joe Maruszczak, and the School Committee for allowing us to take this volunteer group to the Gulf Coast.  Last but not least, to our student volunteers who gave their time and money to be part of this journey.  They gave up a week of vacation to toil in hot weather and unpleasant conditions.  They gave up part of themselves– a group of diverse personalities - to work together as a very effective team.  They came home with a new appreciation and gratitude for the many comforts that we take for granted.  They are; Jacqui Ahearn, Alex Barca, Gwen Bibby, Jasmine Barros, Melissa Buchanan, Duncan Fuller, Rachel Goldman, Michelle Greene, Juliet Hooten, Emily Keohane, Brienn McParland, Kevin Mutascio, Kirstin Ridlen, Molly Sherer, Greg Szczesuil.

    We packed so much into our week at the Gulf Coast.  It’s impossible to cover it all.  Please feel free to ask any member of the Gulf Coast Group about our trip.  Every chance we get to talk about this amazing experience will give us the opportunity to bring it back to life.  Stay tuned for photographs and a display of artifacts as we continue to share our stories . . .

MATT KAKLEY covers Mansfield for The Sun Chronicle. He can be reached at 508-236-0333 or at mkakley@thesunchronicle.com.

BY TED NESI / SUN CHRONICLE STAFF

Friday, April 18, 2008

MANSFIELD - For most people, spring break means beaches, boards and bikinis. But for a group of Mansfield High students, it will mean hard work for a good cause.

A group of 24 students and four adults will depart Sunday for the Gulf Coast, where they will spend their April school vacation assisting with the ongoing recovery efforts there in the wake of Hurricane Katrina 2 years ago.

In February, 16 other Mansfield High students did the same thing over their winter break.

The trips have been coordinated by Kathy Litchfield, an English teacher and assistant swim coach at MHS who brought the idea to her students after discussing it with a friend who is working there.

"There was so much interest," she said. "It was originally going to be an April trip, but there were so many kids that I decided to split it in two."

The group of 11th and 12th graders will fly into New Orleans, then travel to work at Camp Coastal Outpost, in Kiln, Miss., a town of about 2,000 people. An NBC News reporter said Camp Coastal "has the look of an Army MASH unit, with its rough-hewn bunkhouses, dining tents and makeshift showers."

The volunteers will be assigned various tasks based on their skills.

One of the students heading to the Gulf next week, MHS senior Drew Rumbel, said residents of the Gulf Coast still need help, even though Katrina's impact has fallen out of the headlines.

"What people don't realize is, while we complain about the harshness of winter, there are people in Mississippi who have lost it all from Katrina, and have been suffering an endless battle to find shelter and take care of their families," he said.

But community service isn't cheap.

The total cost of the two trips is about $36,000, and the students have been fundraising to defray the cost through bake sales, can drives and even a school carnival.

Sam Wisel, another senior going on next week's trip, said the fundraising efforts have made the challenge of the trip more rewarding, and he expects the experience to be "life-changing."

"The biggest part of this trip for us, the students and teachers who are volunteering, is that we are helping contribute to our society and being good citizens through helping those who need it the most," he said.

Litchfield said she is proud of her students and impressed by their dedication and commitment. "It is a really, really good group of kids, and they're working really hard to come down together and support each other," she said. "That's really good to see from a group of 16-year-olds who would rather be out with their friends on a Saturday night."