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A relief trip pro

Professor Mary Slade leads JMU students in continued relief efforts

By Jessica Lewis (’08)

Students clean out medical clinic untouched since the Katrina hurricane disaster.

Students clean out medical clinic untouched since the Katrina hurricane disaster.

In November 2007, College of Education Professor Mary Slade led a trip of 120 volunteers to New Orleans to help the continued relief effort for Hurricane Katrina-affected areas. Although she had no service-leadership experience prior to the hurricane disaster, Slade has led five such trips so far. “When I take James Madison University students to perform relief trips, I don’t motivate the students, I simply “rein” their energy together,” she says.

Now, after her many trips and a lot of experience in destroyed neighborhoods, Slade is a full-fledged relief trip pro who has mastered everything from fundraising to communication between students and families.

Dedicated students key to continued efforts

Students are generally expected to pay their way when traveling on a service trip. Slade’s group, specifically, is expected to pay for their own food and shelter on top of travel costs. Slade has worked to make the experience more accessible and affordable. With bracelet and T-shirt sales, assistance from JMU clubs and fundraising by faculty members, Slade manages to cover 50 percent of the costs. The financial help is a godsend for those students willing to volunteer who cannot afford the cost of the travel.

JMU student relief group packs Thanksgiving meals for families affected by Hurricane Katrina.

JMU student relief group packs Thanksgiving meals for families affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Slade attests to the amazing commitment of students who are dedicated to helping, regardless of the costs. The volunteers have gutted houses once under 18 feet of water in Biloxi, Miss. In the New Orleans area, they have helped build houses in the Musician’s Village and served Thanksgiving meals to families in need.

During the 2008 Memorial Day holiday, JMU students will once again be busy tearing apart plaster while gutting old homes and swinging hammers on new rooftops. When asked about safety, Slade admits that the volunteer experience can be tricky. However, she has faith in the National Relief Network. “The key to this is working with an agency that's really safe. We don't work in condemned buildings, and we also don't work with people who have other means for getting the work done. Instead we choose to work with people who genuinely need help in the rebuild and restore efforts. That's why we work in the Ninth Ward and St. Bernard's Parish."

Students work together as they gut homes destroyed by hurricane.

Students work together as they gut homes destroyed by hurricane.

A Wiki site aids communication

To alleviate worries from families and difficulties with phone communication, Slade discovered a way to make parents comfortable with their students’ safety — a collaborative Web site or Wiki for parents, students and JMU employees to use for online postings. In order to find a wireless signal, the group manages to park their bus outside of a Federal Emergency Management Agency building and read online notes from relatives encouraging the volunteers to stay the course.

The Wiki site serves another important purpose. “We got home and in three months we had 80,000 hits [on the Wiki.] So we talked to people in New Orleans, and they said, ‘This is the greatest help you could give because it keeps our problems out here alive!’… We have kept those Wikis to let people everywhere know the stories and see the pictures — let them know what’s going on down there,” says Slade.

Thanks to the Internet chatter and Slade’s intense advertising efforts, her relief trips have expanded to approximately three times the size of the original group. The most recent group of 120 included students from Madison as well as local high-school and middle-school students.

Slade's group worked on building houses in New Orleans' Musicians' Village.

Slade's group worked on building houses in New Orleans' Musicians' Village.

Plans for future relief work

Slade is looking forward to an upcoming trip to a new area — Jackson, Tenn. — to provide relief services for the community that recently experienced tornado destruction. Nonetheless, she promises to continue to focus on Louisiana, an area that is still in dire need. Slade has a new project, a library for the Ninth Ward in honor of a recently deceased graduate student who was dedicated to helping fundraise for the relief trips. With 2,000 books already collected and New Orleans’ communities still expecting help, Slade has her work cut out for her when she returns to the area Thanksgiving 2008.

About the author

Jessica Lewis ('08) is a writing intern for JMU's Be the Change campaign.