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| Brs. David Concannon and Tony Quinn join the community and Iona in Mission Students on March 15th |
Volunteers to rebuild the Crescent City still find a warm
welcome here. They bring willing hands
and give a lot of hope—that the poor are not forgotten and that people still
care. And the rebuilding, physical and
psychological, continues.
A recent issue of the Times Picayune noted that Orleans
Parish is the 9th fastest growing ‘county’ in the country—not too
difficult since so much was destroyed by Katrina. Despite great efforts at rebuilding [FEMA is
now getting high marks for its work by the City Council] the fact is that the
population today is only 75% of what it was a decade ago. http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/04/orleans_st_bernard_among_natio.html.
Visitors, rebuilders and tourists are welcome and many arrived
in March for Spring Break and the “Final Four”—even before there were only
four. Nevermind.
On March 14th Dave Concannon and
Tony Quinn arrived on their Spring break and they hosted a dinner for a Sister friend at our
house; luckily we were also invited.
Dave and Tony stayed on to share our dinner for Iona College
students who were here as part of “Iona in Mission.” We had already met the
Iona students on Tuesday night when Travis Wain and his friends asked where
they could see the Iona game.
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| "When the Gaels make the tournament, you call the Christian Brothers and they set you up in a local parish center to watch it while you are in New Orleans." Luke Gregory, IIM Moderator, Residential Hall Director |
Fr. Michael Joseph Nguyen’s parish is near
where they were staying and he kindly hosted them at
Resurrection of Our Lord in New Orleans East, providing big screen
projection and platters of ‘wings’ and French fries to accompany their chips
and dips.
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| Trinity Lutheran reopened it doors on April 8th, 2012 having been closed since Katrina. Iona students installed the brick walkways to the church among other things. |
Iona then came to our house on
Thursday, the 15th and Molly Sherry and Allison Maraldo hosted and facilitated the reflection time after dinner.
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| Team "Mollison" can work a full day, bike to our house, help serve dinner, facilitate the reflection and nip out and serve dessert! And they keep smiling! They make the dinners and reflection much more appropriate to the age group we are serving. |
On March 17th, Bob cooked a superb corned beef
and cabbage dinner for Russ Greco and Laura, friends from OHH days; they filled
us in on the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in the Irish Channel.
Ray Vercruysse came in on Sunday evening, March 18th; he did
some work with the Archdiocesan high schools during his four day stay. He also was with us when Vancouver College
students joined us on Monday.
Vancouver College
came to us at the beginning of their stay, on Monday, the 19th. They surrendered graciously to the
requirement to take home lots of beads!
Molly facilitated their reflection that evening.
 |
| Br. Ray with Vancouver students |
Vancouver College High School was in
New Orleans from March 18 to 24, lived at Camp Restore and worked on a number
of projects arranged through Camp Restore.
Go the link below for a WONDERFUL 6 minute video on the student’s
experiences. http://camprestore.org/index.php/stories/news-story/spring_break_2012/
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| Vancouver gave us shirts-XL- they fit! "we're just saying." |
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| Molly facilitated the reflection for teachers and students. |
John was off to New Rochelle, New York on Tuesday, March 20th
in order to facilitate a faculty retreat at Iona Prep that began with an
optional Evening Prayer on Thursday and continued Friday at Immaculate
Conception Seminary in Douglaston, Queens.
The All Saints Community at 21 Pryer Terrace were WONDERFUL hosts and
great company!
On Tuesday, March 27th the community hosted a
gathering for Taize Prayer and on Wednesday, Br. Mark Murphy from the Province
Leadership Team and his sister, Frances Vander-Reyden [from Toronto] spent
several days with us. They were welcome
guests who enjoyed the city—it is great to hear other perspectives when we get
too familiar with things. Of course,
they have to listen to us, too.
 |
| Brs. Dave Concannon, Bob, John, Fr. MichaelJoseph Nguyen, Brs. Tony Quinn and Charles. Fr. MichaelJoseph is a very generous benefactor, counselor, guide and friend. He joined us the evening Iona In Mission came so he could participate in the reflection and thank us for giving him an opportunity to be hospitable to the Iona students. Like we said, he is a very good friend. |
On April 3rd Charles, Bob and John were joined by
Molly and Allison for a dinner at East of Italy on the Lakefront hosted by Fr.
Michael Joseph Nguyen for parishioners and friends of the parish.
March was a time of discovery! We discovered, through the volunteer groups
from Vancouver, Iona College and O’Dea about the wonderful facility for housing
volunteers at Camp Restore in New Orleans East.
We are hopeful that Iona Prep will be able to return to New Orleans
again and have recommended Camp Restore as a clean and economical place to
stay; Restore also has programs to engage volunteers as well as housing groups
working with other agencies.
We are also discovered friends to help us in recruiting
volunteers; Tiffany DiNome at Iona College has been very helpful and for the
first time, through her efforts and those of Travis Wain, a former student of
Br. Joe Fragala’s, we have two possible volunteers from Iona College! We are grateful to Tiffany, the Coordinator
of Iona in Mission and her colleagues
in Campus Ministry for their support of this community and her interest in
recruiting Iona students for the Volunteer Community. http://www.iona.edu/studentlife/ministry/ministers/tiffanydinome.cfm
Bob’s efforts in recruitment have been rewarded. Interest has been expressed by a young man
from New Jersey, graduating from Catholic University of America and another
fellow in the Mid-West now involved in an AmeriCorps program with a community
of Franciscan Sisters. If even two of
the four come, we’d be happy. Our first
year we began with two and accepted a third in January; we are flexible! We are aware that we are a volunteer
community and that hospitality to volunteers and fellow ministers is what we
are about. It is no longer about US or our particular
thing; we are ‘brother’ to them, where they are—companions on their
journey—guides sometimes, often simply companions on the Way. It is a good place to be.
"The pure
gratitude of the people living [in New Orleans] was relentless and sincere.
[It] was one of the best decisions I made since I set foot on Iona’s
Campus." - Mike Petre, Class of 2012
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