TSA Students Inspired During Service Trip to New Orleans
By Ella Hayslett

A group of freshmen and sophomores from the Sharon Academy recently traveled to New Orleans, La. to do service work during their April break. They worked at two different locations, a food bank called "Just the Right Attitude" and the Annunciation Mission, part of the Annunciation Church where they stayed, working to fix up a neighborhood playground. The trip, which was six days long, was planned and organized by the students.

The group of 17 students and two chaperones became inspired to plan a trip down to New Orleans when Debra South, the founder of "Just the Right Attitude" and a resident of New Orleans, came to speak at the school last October. She told them about the work that she was doing at her food bank to help those in need after Hurricane Katrina. In 2005, when the hurricane hit, more than 1.3 million citizens where left homeless. In 2007, "Just the Right Attitude" distributed 4.187 million pounds of food.

At the food bank, the students filled hundreds of paper bags with canned food, boxes of crackers and cereal, and drinks that were then picked up by citizens of New Orleans who where in need. The students also helped carry bags to cars of the elderly. In the four months before the trip, the students raised enough money to give Debra South $500 to aid her effort to serve people less fortunate.

The group stayed at the Annunciation Mission in the Broadmoor neighborhood. They split their time between working at the food bank and the mission, where they fixed up a neighborhood playground, which had closed due to drainage problems. The students dug ditches, built a new retaining wall, laid down sod, and planted surrounding gardens.

On the last day, the playground reopened, and the students organized a party for the kids in the area.

"I remember a father was smiling at his son playing and it made me so happy," said Jennifer Sensenich, a freshman on the trip. "You could tell that they were so thankful for what we had done."

The students worked five out of the six days they were gone. They spent one day in the French Quarter, where they got to experience the part of the city that draws the most tourists. They also took a tour, led by the minister of the Annunciation Church, called the "Misery Tour," which led them through the Ninth Ward, the area of New Orleans that was most badly damaged during Hurricane Katrina. As part of the tour they also viewed the city’s levees, and the place where they broke, causing the flooding of the entire city.

Pheylan Martin another freshman on the trip, said, "I thought if was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen."

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