A Thanks For Giving Friendship

One of the wonderful benefits of volunteerism is the friendships that are made. After the hurricanes of 2005, three women met for the first time as volunteers for HandsOn New Orleans, a thriving volunteer center for grassroots service projects supported by GNOF. Every year at this time they return to renew their commitment to New Orleans and to their friendship.

Left to Right: Rose from California, Laurence from Canada, and Suzanne from Virginia.

Since Thanksgiving 2007, we have cleaned, roofed, painted, dug holes, put up fences, and provided companionship to those in need. Rose, Laurence and I met at the Hands On New Orleans bunkhouse in 2007 during the week of Thanksgiving. Rose from California, was a team leader at HONO. Laurence, from Massachusetts and I from Virginia, came in as volunteers. Our ages span decades but we bonded immediately. Often on different projects, we would gather in the common area to chat about our experiences of the day. The week ended quickly and we vowed to return the following year.

In 2008, each of us experienced significant changes in our lives. Rose got a new job, Laurence was promoted at work, and my husband and I adopted a baby girl. We were busier than ever and I expected our promise to return to New Orleans would be broken. It wasn’t. We all arrived to the new HONO bunkhouse on Banks Street and were assigned to perform roofing work in the Houma area, which had been hit by hurricane Gustav in August. Led by amazing team leaders, we worked harder than ever and assisted in the completion of 15 roofing jobs.

Thanksgiving week 2009 brought us together again. For two days, our project coordinator Marc led us on a project at the Nelson Charter School where we dug the hole, and mixed and poured the concrete needed for a new basketball hoop. The kids will now be able to play full court basketball! On our final day of volunteering, Rose visited friends at Project Lazarus while Laurence and I painted a house a beautiful shade of orange with our project coordinator Payton in the upper 9th Ward.

I fell in love with New Orleans during my first visit in 1999. I am grateful not only for the opportunity to participate in helping put the city back together after Katrina but for the wonderful and fascinating people I met along the way. I’ve learned that I love (and miss!) Parkway Bakery po’ boys, coffee and beignets at any time and that more houses should be painted orange.