St. Joe Reaches Out To New Orleans
Angels in New Orleans smiling in front of the new house foundation they built in one week (2019)!
February 2, 2022
The Angel Reach Out service trip for the 2021-2022 school year is headed to serve the New Orleans community. The trip will depart from Saint Louis on March 13, and return on the 19, which is St. Joe’s spring break. This group of passionate students is ready to help out with anything from painting walls to building houses, and the trip organizers could not be more excited to help.
For the past several years, St. Joe has offered a variety of service trips to our student body. This year, Mrs. Sarah Boul and Mr. Bud Stein have signed up to lead 20 students to New Orleans, Louisiana. Despite the excitement and the tight organization within the club, there were still some issues with the planning. As many groups from schools across the country had their trips cancelled due to the global pandemic, many of those students are rescheduling their trips for this spring. While this mass amount of people willing to volunteer is fantastic, it made SJA’s place in the city a little harder to find.
Nevertheless, Mrs. Boul and Mr. Stein were able to find two organizations that the group will split their time between throughout the week. The organization that Mrs. Boul found is Hands On New Orleans, which has many different programs in several different areas. Their options range from community beautification and gardening, to disaster management and repair. The students attending from St. Joe will most-likely focus on painting a mural within a school. Or even installing a children recreation center.
From Mr. Stein, the group will work with JustRecovery based out of New Orleans. This organization focuses solely on disaster relief, specifically relief from hurricanes. Currently, volunteers are tearing down the remains of houses that were damaged by Hurricane Ida. The students from St. Joe have the potential to be continuing those efforts, or beginning the reconstruction projects.
“I’m most excited to spend time with the students outside of the classroom and to share in faith and service,” Mrs. Boul said.
Along with Mrs. Boul and Mr. Stein, Ms. Hailey Meersman will also be chaperoning the trip. Since Ms. Meersman attended this trip on her senior year, she couldn’t be more excited to go again.
“I’m excited to see my students bond through this service and to see the joy that it brings them,” Ms. Meersman said.
After the messy months that this pandemic has brought us, this group of students is excited to join together for a week of giving back. The students attending come from both the junior and senior classes, and they are all hoping to form connections with one another that last beyond the borders of Louisiana. This is simply another amazing way for the St. Joe students to ‘serve the dear neighbor,’ and their excitement is bubbling high.
