AUTUMN ARRIVES IN NOLA

Friday evening, at 'Ignatius':  John, Tavis and Matt at one end of the table!

 We have had 65 degree temperatures at night in New Orleans—we call that “chilly.”  The days recently have been dry and sunny and the tourists are out and about!

On September 18^th, Sr. Monica Gundler, SC came to facilitate our community meeting; she will accompany us on four occasions during the year, though we meet every other week.

On September 20, Br. John attended the 50^th anniversary celebrations at Tampa Catholic High School and carried greetings from the Province Leadership Team to the students and faculty.  A number of administrators and faculty from John’s time there [1984-87] attended the Mass and reception.  Tampa Catholic has adopted Blessed Edmund Rice as their official school patron and is revitalizing the service program as part of their anniversary celebrations.

Br. Kevin Bernard spent the week of September 23^rd with us; he and John went to the same elementary school and joined the Brothers together in 1964.  Kevin is taking up new responsibilities in Cochabamba, Bolivia working with recovering addicts as well as responsibilities on the Latin American Regions’ Leadership Team.

Friday evening at 'Ignatius':  Charles, Bob, Br. Kevin Bernard and John at the other end of the table

On October 1, we had another community meeting to catch up and plan our calendars. 

Matt Beben, working with United Saints, has done a lot of clearing of empty lots which harbor unwelcome rodent populations and sometimes criminal behaviors.  Travis Wain, with Helping Hands, has been gutting homes and doing some rehabilitation work.  Travis and Matt have volunteered on several Saturdays to work in LaPlace and Braithwaite cleaning up after Hurricane Isaac.  John Petrullo is working on development projects for Café Reconcile which is undergoing extensive renovations which may be finished by December.

Bob continues at St. Joe’s on Tulane in the parish office, and also helping wind down Operation Helping Hands.  He and the three volunteers also have made great progress in the rehabilitation of the first floor of the Blessed Pauline Center.  Charles spends the mornings each week at Lantern Light. John continues to work with Catholic high schools through the Discovery Walk program.

The week of October 1 brought the terribly sad news of the death of Br. Robert Bellarmine Durning who Br. John knew well, as did John Petrullo and Travis Wain when they studied at Iona College.  Due to previous travel plans, Travis and John Petrullo both got to the wake for Br. Durning.  A day later came word of the death of Br. Paul Crowley after a long illness.  He was in Br. John’s ‘group’, having joined the same year.

On Saturday, October 6, Anthony and Colleen LaRocca dropped off three gently used bikes donated by folks down here for the volunteers use.  Generous donors also gave $150 for refurbishment of the bicycles.

On Sunday, October 7, Br. John left for Henderson, Nevada to participate in the School Leaders Retreat for Edmund Rice Christian Brothers schools in North America.