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Friday June 23, 2006

Bay Area teens spend few days helping rebuild New Orleans

by alexandra j. wall
staff writer

Last September, Daniel Riff of Palo Alto donated money to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. He helped load trucks with supplies that were headed to the areas devastated by the hurricanes. But beyond that, he felt there was little he could do. Especially since he was under 18.

But as an alumnus of the Diller Teen Fellows program, he attended a retreat in February where the current fellows spoke of a trip for which they were raising money. They hoped to visit the New Orleans area to help out for a few days over the Memorial Day weekend.

“I immediately wanted to go,” Riff said.

As a senior counting down the days to graduation, Riff knew that he could easily afford to skip a few days of school. “It was second semester senior year,” he said. “I didn’t have too much else to do.”

Riff was one of 25 Bay Area teens who spent a few days in the New Orleans area. While the trip was spearheaded by the S.F.-based Bureau of Jewish Education and its Bay Area Jewish Service Learning Project Director Jare Akchin, it was a collaborative effort, with groups that included BBYO, the Diller Teens, Tzaddikim of Sonoma County, Congregation Emanu-El, and the East Bay-based Coalition for Jewish Living and Learning(CJLL) all lending their support. A grant from the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund subsidized the trip as well.

While Akchin was hired at the BJE specifically to plan service-learning projects for teens and build community in the process, she had been wanting to do something in her native New Orleans. While she had been back since the hurricanes, it was only to visit family, not to help out.

The teens spent Shabbat with the local Jewish community, and then spent two full days working in Jean Lafitte, a suburb of New Orleans that was hit hard by both Katrina and Rita. There, they worked to clean up an elementary school and gutted two houses, ripping out the carpet, pulling out wood paneling and knocking out drywall.

Often the homes looked fine on the outside, but the FEMA trailers nearby meant the homes were unlivable.

“There was mold in the walls, and you couldn’t see it, even after taking down the wood paneling,” said Susan Friedberg of Danville. “We knew there was a danger to the health of the homeowner, but it was not something that would harm us for a few days.”

“We used crowbars and hammers to take down what looked like a normal house,” said Riff. “The exterior looked fine, but inside, you saw from one side of the house to the other.”

While Riff felt he was definitely helping out by spending his long weekend this way, at the same time, “helping” people by tearing their house down was very sad.

“It was definitely bittersweet for them,” he said. “Their house needs to be taken apart so it can be rebuilt, but watching people come in and destroy your house is not particularly enjoyable. They were glad we were there, but it’s not like they were cheering us on.”

Akchin had a gratifying moment when, on a break, she went to a local ice cream store to get cones for the teens. The man at the counter refused to take her money. When she went back early the next morning, intending to drop off an envelope with the cash and leave quickly, she was reprimanded by the man’s wife, who ran outside to give her a hug.

Friedberg said her experience made her think a lot about being prepared for the next Bay Area earthquake.

“The hurricane victims were prepared,” she said. “They knew it was coming and were told to evacuate, but in earthquake country, we have no way to prepare.”

Friedberg said she realized that she couldn’t count on the government to help.

“I need to be more prepared,” she said. “I need to take care of my family and my pets, and others have to realize that too.”

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