By Jackie D'Aversa, GCHS Class of 2008

Garden City High School students in New Orleans. Who would have thought that 30 Garden City High School students could get down and dirty and actually build houses? Well, over the February break, that's just what members of two service clubs at the High School-Students Helping Students (SHS) and National Disaster Relief Awareness (NDRA)-did.

Along with four faculty advisors, club members traveled to New Orleans to participate in the Hurricane Katrina relief effort through Habitat for Humanity and AmeriCorps. From the air, many students said they were surprised to see that so much devastation is still evident in and around the city. Once on the ground, club members spent four days helping to erect the frames of four houses.

"We built right next to homes that were vacant and crumbling down," sophomore Teddy Lord said. "We couldn't believe that people were still living in trailers more than two years after the storm."

The students packed a good deal into their brief stay. "We learned how to build house frames, follow blue prints, and work together," NDRA president Matt Strong said.

Many hands helped the project move forward. They also absorbed the culture of The Big Easy, from being serenaded on the streets of the city to munching down beignets at historic Café Du Mondé and enjoying a Creole dinner whipped up by French teacher and advisor Jeannot Barr. But nothing was more rewarding, they acknowledged, than the appreciation they received from families who were moving into completed homes nearby.

SHS and NDRA raised funds for the trip through two prosperous garage sales, a series of bake sales, and an extremely successful carnival. The Student Council and Class of 2007 also donated funds to support the trip.

At the job site. Students with a finished section of the exterior wall they constructed. Working together to secure an exterior wall.