Talk given at Ride to Provide on October 19, by Shari Farberman, UMass '10
When I first heard about Hurricane Katrina hitting the south in August of 2005, I remember being completely shocked that a natural disaster of that magnitude had happened in the United States, but I also remember feeling completely detached from the entire situation. New Orleans seemed like a world away from my sheltered neighborhood in New York, and while it certainly was scary, I didn’t think it would ever have a direct effect on my life. After a few months, the Katrina news had died down in newspapers, and so many people just assumed that everything had gone back to normal.
One day after a class at Hillel during my freshman year, I was approached by the staff and asked what I was doing for spring break- my instinct was to answer laying in my bed and watching TV, but instead I hesitated and said I wasn’t sure. Two months later I found myself in New Orleans ready to try and make some kind of impact. It was the most amazing week of my life. The devastation that was left in New Orleans was absolutely unimaginable; I had never in my life felt quite as helpless as I did when I arrived at the house I was assigned to work on for the week. The exterior of the house was still standing, but the inside of the house is an image I will keep with me forever. There were water marks on the walls seven feet tall; the floors were broken and a completely inadequate FEMA trailer in the drive way- the damage was unbelievable. The next thing I knew I had a hard hat, goggles, some kind of face mask and a sledgehammer ready to work. Of all the things I imagined I’d do when I grew up, holding a sledgehammer was never one of them. As we began to finish the demolition that Katrina had began, it became so clear that we were doing so much more than just rebuilding up a house. As we started to tear the house apart even more, we realized that this easily could have been our houses, filled with memories and stories and experiences that the family had had. We were rebuilding the lives of the people whose community was completely torn apart by something so incredibly out of their control. After an absolutely life changing experience, the following year I returned to New Orleans for spring break once again. This time there was less demolishing to do, and more of the “finishing touches”. It was such an incredible feeling to come back one year later and realize that things really have changed. That while it did not always feel like it, our work really had made a difference. As we were painting some of the last houses in the area, I realized that even though we weren’t building from the ground up, we were making these houses homes, a place where the people who had lost everything would start again.
The donations you make today go do to so much more than just sending a bunch of college kids like me to New Orleans to a week. Your donations are restoring lives for countless people and bringing life back to a vibrant city that seemed to have gotten lost along the way. Thank you for changing my life and the lives of so many people who you may never meet, but are forever changed by your contributions.
