The next stop was Camp Restore, the organization we are partnering with this week to volunteer at sites such as The ARC garden and bead recycling and a nearby church. We will stay at Camp and volunteer at the sites they send us to. We took a tour of the camp grounds and moved into our designated rooms. After settling in, we drove to the Lower 9th Ward. We were all amazed at what was there and what was no longer there. We saw driveways and stairs that once led to a house that had been destroyed and demolished. We saw completely new and modern houses that were part of Brad Pitt's Make it Right Project. We drove up to the levy that broke from the hurricane and in those moments, everything seemed so much more real and despairing.
We parked the cars to walk around and take pictures under the memorial. As we reminisced about the destruction and the events that occurred there only six years ago, to our very much surprise, Russell Brand (a British comedian and actor) passed by, greeted, and took pictures with the group. From then on, our spirits lifted and the IIM NOLA 2012 team officially had our first memory in NOLA together that we will never forget.
