Lisa's Return

May 22, 2007

Spending time in New Orleans as a volunteer can be trying at times. Not nearly as trying as what the residents have gone through. I don’t try to relate to their struggles and pain, only to help with and sympathize with and listen to them. But volunteers do struggle. I do, and I’ve seen it in others. Am I doing enough? Am I making the best use of my time? Where else or how else can I help? Am I letting my emotions about other things get the better of me? These are all questions I’ve asked myself, almost daily. I don’t really see that changing. I feel like so long as there’s so much to do around here, I’m going to have to cope with those thoughts. But there are days where something so positive and so uplifting happens that the frustrations and question marks are erased.

Lisa Pitale, a sophomore at Loyola College in Maryland, returned to New Orleans for a few days this week, along with her parents and 2,300 books. Lisa was here in early March, part of a group from her school on an Alternative Spring Break, and she was very affected by her time spent at Andrew Jackson Elementary. The high population of students and the need for books in the library hit her hard enough that she put together a book drive when she got back to school.

“That was very inspirational (seeing Play Power here). Seeing you guys here, made me want to do my part, too, and contribute,” said Lisa. “I was so touched by it, I didn’t want to just spend a week here; I wanted to make it a bigger part of my life, and it really has been the past two months, talking to people, ordering books.”

Monday, not even three months after her first trip, Lisa was back at the school and with the help of her parents sorting through all the boxes of books in the Andrew Jackson school library, dividing them up by age and grade level. Today, the classes of children came in and they were each able to pick out a book. I’m not sure how much I loved getting books when I was in the 2^nd or 4^th grades. My memory fails me on this one, but my guess would be that I would have been stoically appreciative at best, ‘bummed’ for not getting a better surprise at worst. Today, though, from children who sleep in trailers, learn in over-crowded classrooms and play in concrete parking lots, I saw pure joy.

I guess when you don’t have much you’re more easily pleased, as the kids were today. And, I guess even when confronted with times where I question myself and if I’m doing enough, scenes like today’s serve as a good reminder that I am. And so are many other people.