In 2006, many 15-passenger vans arrived in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Faculty, staff, and student volunteers from campuses around the country, including Macalester College, responded to the disaster by mucking out houses, cutting back overgrowth, and helping people find a way home. Ten years after the storm, Macalester continues to stand in solidarity with it’s New Orleans, Louisiana (NOLA) partners, and adapted their involvement as the landscape of community recovery has evolved. These days, when staff leads Ruth Janisch Lake and Sedric McClure ask their NOLA partners “How can we support you?” their partners tell them that the lessons, struggles, and sustaining cultural institutions of New Orleans must not be forgotten.
I Don't Want People to Think the Work is Done: Macalester's Ten Years of Solidarity with New Orleans