Before Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Louisiana’s St. Bernard Parish was an industrious community comprising middle-class and working-class families. Generations of families lived within blocks of one another and neighbors could trace their friendships back to their grandparents and beyond. The parish had 27,000 homes and 14,000 businesses. The onslaught of Katrina rendered all homes in the parish uninhabitable.

When APTA comes to New Orleans this fall for the 2011 Annual Meeting and EXPO, it will provide a chance for meeting participants to join in the St. Bernard Project’s Rebuilding Program—an effort that has already completed 352 homes, with another 47 under construction. The schedule includes community service opportunities on Thursday, Oct. 6. The Business Member Board of Governors will also coordinate a work session Friday, Sept. 30.

Through this program, volunteers rebuild homes for senior citizens, persons with disabilities, and families with children who cannot afford to have their homes rebuilt by contractors. For clients who can afford supplies, the project provides supervised volunteer labor; for those who cannot afford supplies, the project buys them and provides the labor. A typical rebuild project takes approximately 12 weeks of volunteer labor and uses about $15,000 worth of building supplies.

The APTA Executive Committee participated in a community service project for the St. Bernard Project during its November 2010 retreat in New Orleans.

Specifics about when and how to sign up to volunteer will appear in a future issue of Passenger Transport, but people attending the APTA Annual Meeting and EXPO can make plans now to extend their visits to New Orleans to participate in this so-very-worthy venture. Or, according to some of the Executive Committee members and APTA staff who volunteered last fall, an adventure!

Photo by Bridget Nolan, St. Bernard Project At the conclusion of APTA’s 2010 Executive Committee retreat, teams spent an afternoon rebuilding houses devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Above, working on drywall, two team members assist the St. Bernard Project.