“People need to do this for themselves and to take the word back”, says instructional aide and CFT member Linda Olsen from Pacifica, California, as she carefully painted the edge of waist-high trim along the hallway where the beige met a lighter color. “You can tell them but they won't believe you because it's too overwhelming. I thought everything was fine because I saw the ads on TV to come down. And it’s not.”
Ms. Olsen was not the only one who was shocked by what she saw in New Orleans. Yolanda Pierre, a teacher from Miami and member of UTD, also says that she was surprised by the state of the city. “It’s painful, looking at all the houses that haven’t been repaired, block after block and nobody’s back”, says Ms. Pierre, “We don’t see that much about it on TV.”
The volunteers will be painting McMain and Banneker high schools, and renovating the library and other facilities at Einstein Charter School in New Orleans East. Later in their two-week stay they will be building and repairing homes with Habitat for Humanity and ACORN.
Some of the volunteers were returning after visiting New Orleans last year with Union Summer. Geof Sorkin is a middle school teacher and UFT member in Brooklyn who this year inspired his co-worker John Amato to come down. As Mr. Amato rolled paint on a door, he explained that he is paying someone else to paint his house right now, but that didn’t seem to bother him. “A child is a child is a child, whether it is in my neighborhood or somebody else’s”, says Mr. Amato.
