Nearly a year and a half after New Orleans and much of the South was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, clean-up efforts are still in high demand, and many organizations have targeted college students when recruiting volunteers for the cause.
Sarah Erlinder, UW-Madison law student and a coordinator for Student Hurricane Network, a national relief organization made up of law students, said college students are the ideal demographic to participate in the relief effort because ""we have a lot of skills that we're not even aware of.""
She said that because of the drastic social desperation in New Orleans, college students are able to do real work in the fields they intend to pursue that they would not be qualified to do in more socially stable cities.
""There's so much need that you end up getting to do some really cool stuff that feels really great that you otherwise wouldn't have the opportunity to do,"" she said.
However, not everyone is as optimistic about the number of UW-Madison students going to New Orleans.
Pam Murtaugh, who helped co-found Katrina Corps, a Madison based organization that works to nationally recruit volunteers to aid in Katrina relief, said Katrina Corps was established because ""there was no centralized effort for gutting or recovery.""
Also, according to Murtaugh, of the calls they received from schools across the nation, most of the country's volunteers, were families and retirees, rather than students.
""Surprisingly, UW-Madison was one of the last schools we've heard from,"" Murtaugh said.
However, among UW-Madison students, Erlinder said she does not think a lack of concern is the issue.
She said that while she was in New Orleans over winter break, she continually ran into other small groups from UW-Madison.
""It's kind of like everybody is putting in these individual efforts when we could do more if we knew about each other ... It just has to do with organizing and support and awareness,"" she said.
Regardless of who is involved, everyone seems to agree that even at this juncture after the hurricane, a lot of work still needs to be done.
Sarah Beckman, who volunteered in New Orleans over Spring Break 2006 with the group Hands On, said that even though it had been eight months since the disaster, ""it looked like it had just happened.""
""Once you got inside the houses ... everything was just covered in mold,"" Beckman said.
""[There were] magazines or little kids' toys on the sidewalks that had been soaked. They were kind of stuck there because of all the mold.""
John Barnhardts, director of the Wisconsin Union Directorate Alternative Breaks Committee at UW-Madison said regardless of the time that has elapsed since the storm, the trips to New Orleans are still popular and send kids when opportunity arises—especially over the upcoming Spring Break.
Barnhardts said college students are perfect volunteers to help turn around the ills the hurricane left behind.
