Distribution Center

One of my favorite places to help out has been the Distribution Center on West Judge Perez Dr. in St. Bernard's Parish. This is where all the donations that come into St. Bernard's are sent. Residents can then come in on mornings that it is open (varies from two to four mornings per week) to get food and clothing items. The following is a journal entry from April 13. I think a lot of what goes on at of the DC, and so I wanted to share something on it.

Friday, April 13, 2007

I spent another morning at the Distribution Center. Friday is other day which it opens to the residents (along with Wednesday). There were probably more people today, and I was there the entire three hours it was open. The best part of being a volunteer is not the satisfaction of my labor – although that was a great feeling, too -- but rather the interaction with residents, being around them, watching them, not as novelties but as real people, and getting familiar with some of their stories.

It’s tough, the doors opened and the people filed in, but I didn’t want to stare. I wanted to just act as if I was just another employee at a Macy’s or JC Penney, there to help out if necessary while they shopped. But I couldn’t keep myself from wanting to observe how they behaved and what this all meant to them. The food table is simple, with items like peanut butter, jelly, tomato sauce, pudding and macaroni and cheese taking up most of the space. But it’s the most popular area in the entire hall, and the area that gets cleaned out the quickest. Watching them happily take this food, I felt like all my trips to AJ’s and Wild Oats (Whole Foods) back in Scottsdale were unnecessary and greedy. The key was being able to take a moment like that and not be upset, but instead say to myself that this was just another experience that’s going to help my perspective for the rest of my life.

I cleaned up and re-folded clothes, and I moved mouse and bug-infested boxes. But I also made sure to offer and be available to help residents take things out to their cars. I did this not only because they needed the help but also so I could meet and get to talk to them a bit. A woman who was pregnant with twins and her sister had two boxes of clothes that I loaded into their caravan.

More impressions: a somewhat dirty clothes, a messy hall, dust everywhere, boxes that barely stayed together.

The donation area is at the back of the building, and is more like a reception hall. In fact, according to the residents it's where most of the wedding receptions in the Parish were held.

The auditorium part of the Civic Center is in the front of the building. The water lines that mark how hight the water levels got were a good 20 feet up off the floor. The entire auditorium sits empty and broken, but not destroyed. It’s rare that you see something that is destroyed, because the people here won’t let it be. The auditorium held plays, musicals, dance recitals, the list goes on. Now it stands, silent, with empty seats staring down at me as I walked around on the stage, wondering what it must have been like to look out into that audience on the busiest of nights. Yeah, it was a bit eerie, but at the same time I felt like I could feel and visualize how the place once was when all the people would be out there in the audience.