Wolves on the Prowl

I have to admit that the only reason I ended up at the Wilson Charter School was because of the additional five points offered to those of us who went. As we pulled up to the school and listened to the introduction given to us by the school’s administrators I began looking around at the school and letting my mind wander. It was not until after everyone began to clap and file into the school that I realized that I had missed the entire introduction. In retrospect, I really wish that I had paid attention as the principal of the school told the school’s story, because maybe then I would have realized the significance and impact that our work that day had. As I was researching the school to write this blog I found out that the neighborhood it had been in was devastated by Katrina and they lost their public school. In an effort to save the neighborhood and school Latoya Cantrell, a resident of New Orleans’ Broadmoor neighborhood, along with other members of the Broadmoor community started the Charter School where we volunteered.
I started out painting a wall (which had a considerable amount of mold on it), of a first grade classroom. Once we had finished painting the wall I came to the realization that because of the little time that my peers and I put aside to help, a group of first graders will have a clean classroom in which they can feel comfortable and breathe easily. Once we had finished the first coat of paint the teacher asked me to grade some tests for her. I was happy to help make her workload a bit lighter seeing as how there was a lot to be done at the school before the kids came back that Monday. After grading the papers we applied a second coat of paint. We then began making little story books for the kids by ripping out the stories from books and folding them.
I feel as though we were very productive on our trip to the Wilson Charter School but I do wish I knew what I know now about the school while I had been there. I feel as though the school stands for a lot more than just education, but for the strength and resilience of a community that had everything taken away from them but found a way to re-establish their community from the ground up.
One service organization that I have found compelling in the New Orleans area is ARNO: Animal Rescue New Orleans. ARNO is a grassroots volunteer organization dedicated to the rescue and aid of animals that have been displaced or abandoned in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.