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One House at a Time
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For years, Mrs. Megan Sokolnicki, the Director of Community Service at Kent, has been taking groups of students to various locations during their spring breaks. These trips last about a week and immerse the students in work that is both fun and challenging.
A dedicated group of students packed their bags and boarded a flight down to New Orleans, Louisiana, led by Mrs. Sokolnicki, Ms. Hicks, and Mr. Gentry. The students were going to work on a community center in the Lower Ninth Ward, an impoverished community in the tragic and equally beautiful city. The week started with a tour of the community center and an introduction to the man who made the center possible: Mac. Mac, who has lived in New Orleans his entire life, originally bought the building to start his dream of an antique car shop. When Hurricane Katrina hit, he decided he needed to do something for the community and with that, he started the community center.
While at the community center, the group mostly worked on gardening, wall building, and painting. Along with many other volunteers from the Historic Green Volunteer Group, Kent worked hard to help Mac finish the project. Outside of the worksite, the group was able to visit the “Make it Right Houses” as well as traditional restaurants, including the favorite of the week, VooDoo BBQ. The group also spent a day in the French Quarter, tasting local foods (like ‘muffaletta’ sandwiches, named for the type of bread used) and enjoying fun street entertainment. For Kat Andrews ’12, the most shocking aspect of the trip was the extent to the help still needed in New Orleans. Driving though the city every day, the group could still see the disastrous effects of a hurricane that changed New Orleans forever.
Meanwhile, eight hundred miles away in Lynchburg, Virginia, other Kent School students, led by Mr. Sokolnicki and Mr. Benjamin, worked alongside local community volunteers and students from Ursinus College on the home of Joanne Keats. Knowing that Keats was a recent cancer survivor, the Greater Lynchburg Habitat for Humanity thought that Keats was a deserving candidate for a new home. When the students arrived in Lynchburg, only a concrete foundation existed to show the promise of the home to come. The first day began with learning the essentials of construction; from there, each student was assigned his or her own job and some rotated jobs throughout the week. Some of the jobs included installing wires inside the house, building the frame of the interior and exterior walls, and constructing the back deck and front porch. Towards the end of the week, the students had the option of going up onto the roof to hammer in shingles. Monica Moszczyc ‘11 summed up the Lynchburg experience the best by stating, “it was a fulfilling experience and a great way to spend my spring break.”
