Hands On New Orleans Day of Service

All 5 of us volunteer leaders have been coordinating a day of service for tomorrow, March 8th! It will be the first annual Hands On New Orleans Day of Service at Tureaud Memorial Park in the 7th Ward. Alexander P. Tureaud had a huge influence in the civil rights movement, especially here in New Orleans. He was a lawyer who was involved in many civil rights cases during the Jim Crow era.

Tomorrow, we will be:

• Planting trees, bushes, and flowers
• Building picnic tables and trash can holders
• Re-painting existing benches
• Polishing the statue and plaques
• Performing a neighborhood clean-up

We're expecting to have give-or-take 100 volunteers, which is really exciting!

NBA Cares Day of Service

Capdau School is a charter school in Gentilly. It is one of the schools that was hit pretty hard by Katrina, and ever since, they have had to rely on volunteers for many things to get it back up to where it is now. At Capdau, we had a few projects going on for the NBA Cares Day of Service:

• Scraping the paint on the 1st floor
• Priming the walls after scraping was done
• Painting the walls after the priming was done (we didn't get to this point)

• Building a basketball court
• Building benches for the court
• Laying down new mulch for the playground
• Laying down sod for a new football field
• Painting murals which are going to be hung up around the school
  

Jet Li and Yao Ming laying down sod for the football field


Taylor Hicks and Seth Gilliam building benches for the basketball court


Tim Hardaway laying down some mulch for the playground


Dutlef Schrempf working on some concrete


The basketball court

Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service

This past Monday was the MLK Day of Service. I went to Washington Carver High School where volunteers from Hands On and many others came to help out. Apparently many kids thought their school looked similar to a prison, since it's a modular school. We built and painted garbage can holders, picnic tables, flowerbeds, and also painted murals and brightened up the sidewalk. Here are pictures:

Update for this past week - Ms. Evelyn's House and Douglass HS Prep Work

This week, I've definitely learned a ton of things from being on site-- including how to hammer a nail by using the weight of the hammer, and how to lead a group of people. Earlier this week, I shadowed one of our construction supervisors, Dallas, at Ms. Evelyn's house. For most of the day, we patched up the siding on one side of the house. There were a lot of holes and cracks that needed to be patched in order to keep the wood safe from the intrusion of water, which could potentially cause the wood to rot away. Basically, our crew (mostly from Wellesley) had to cut pieces of metal sheets called flashing (which were measured to match the size of the holes and cracks in the siding), climb up the scaffolding, and hammer them on. For smaller holes, we filled them up with caulk.



On Friday, I went to Douglass High School for some prep work for MLK's Day of Service, which was on Saturday, and will also be tomorrow. For most of the morning, I took inventory to make sure all the necessary supplies were on-site. For the latter half of the day, I aided in the creation of a deck. My task was basically to measure the length of the wood that was supposed to be inserted into the deck, and cut it precisely at that length using a chop saw.

Introduction and My First Day of Rain

First post here. My name is Emily and I'm from New Jersey, USA. I'm currently one of five Volunteer Leaders here at Hands On New Orleans (HONO). I just arrived in New Orleans, LA on Friday morning, and I'm already loving it here. Being from NJ, Louisiana seems so different, from the general atmosphere, the architecture, the weather, and the people. People seem to be so much nicer down here. Even strangers who are just walking by on the street are greeted by other strangers. Needless to say, everyone I've met here at Hands On New Orleans have been extremely friendly and helpful. The first day I arrived, I was already put to work, and it feels great! We also received Volunteer Leader training, and now we're all waiting for our specific project assignments. My focus area is in Construction, and I can't wait to learn what I can about it!

Anyway, despite the wonderful weather we've had ever since I arrived, today is my first day of rain here in New Orleans. I'll be setting up the rest of this blog and working on the details. Also, we have some big events coming up here at HONO, including:

-Martin Luther King events
-Mardi Gras
-NBA All-Stars are coming to town