Locals go to New Orleans to help with hurricane cleanup

By Frances Vanderploeg

Monday, Sept. 22, 2008 | 10:24 a.m.

Six days after Hurricane Ike reached land, the last members of a six-person team from Lake Mead Christian Academy flew to the Gulf Coast to lend a hand.

The six, made up of staff members and their family, formed the team after hearing from partner church, Evangelical Church in America, that many families were needing help in New Orleans. The school asked for adult volunteers beginning Sept. 15, and most of them left Sept. 18, with the final two leaving Sept. 19.

It's not a new concept for the school: Students and staff members at the private Christian school participate in mission trips every year, including a trip to New Orleans to help out after Hurricane Katrina.

The team chose to return to New Orleans because the area never fully recovered from Katrina. When Hurricanes Gustav and Ike hit this year, residents found they were again in need of help, even though they were not near the eye of the storm, Kim Snell, development director for the school, said.

"The other areas, like Houston, they were getting a lot more media coverage and they were getting a lot more aid than some of the other towns," she said.

New Orleans still experienced massive flooding, but it was not getting attention, she said. "It's just not as exciting to cover because it's been hit before."

Snell was on the school's trip after Katrina and will be heading up this assessment trip. The team expects to do some work, she said, but the main focus is on figuring out where they can be most useful in future trips.

Larger groups, which will include high school students, plan to return to the area beginning in October to help rebuild.

It's a rare opportunity for the students to serve in the United States, she said. They have completed mission trips in the past, but generally in other parts of the world.

That was a draw for some of the adults who went as well. Glenn Fuller, chief financial officer at the school, will be traveling with his father. Fuller said he decided to go because many of the men who wanted to couldn't do so with such short notice.

"If we're going to accomplish something down there, we need some strong backs," he said.

Fuller told his father that evening that he planned on going, and the elder Fuller jumped at the chance, Glenn Fuller said.

Fuller's uncle lives in the area. After Gustav hit, they received a brief phone call saying the family was OK, but have not heard since. Fuller said he expects if something bad happened, he would have heard, but they are still waiting.

They won't be close enough to help their own family, Fuller said, but his father appreciated the opportunity to help people in a similar situation.

Frances Vanderploeg can be reached at 990-2660 or [email protected].