Traverse City -- Less than six months after Hurricane Katrina, in a devastated region of the Gulf Coast, students from Traverse City Christian School spent part of a week tearing things down.
Now, two years later, they plan to build things up.
It's a sign of progress, however small, but students say they look forward to seeing how far the region has come, even though there's still a long way to go.
"People have returned to their homes, and I think we'll get to meet more people," said Anne Friedlander, 17, a senior at the school. "I think we'll be surprised how much destruction there still is, though."
Tonight, 123 students from the school will board three buses headed south for Louisiana as part of a school-wide mission trip in place of semester exams. They will arrive Sunday afternoon in New Orleans, where they will set up camp at a Baptist church in the city.
They will work in nearby Chalmette, about seven miles from downtown New Orleans and east of the city's Ninth Ward. The students' main project will be to repair the First Baptist Church of Chalmette, a building damaged during the August 2005 storm.
Much of the gutting and roofing that students worked on during the first trip is now complete, Principal Patrick Rode said, so they'll assist with such projects as cleanup, siding and painting.
Rode said he found about six locations on an Internet search of mission trips, and chose Chalmette because it logistically was well-organized and had work for students of all ages.
"We really didn't care where geographically we worked, as long as we were doing this for hurricane relief," he said. "We just want our kids to realize they have an opportunity to help others."
That's a key for many of the students.
"Knowing that we're helping people who are less fortunate, it will make us feel more fortunate for what we have," said Laura Murray, 12, a seventh grader who will make her first trip with the school. "Both of my brothers have gone, and they just said it was so surprising."
The students' efforts, and others like them, have not gone unnoticed by the area's residents.
St. Bernard Parish, where Chalmette is located, had about 67,000 people prior to the storm, according to Elizabeth McDougall, the parish's tourism director. About 25,000 of them have returned.
The dozen or so communities that make up the parish, akin to a county, were located in Katrina's eye and, were almost completely submerged.
"Every business, all but maybe five homes in our parish, had water," said McDougall, who estimated St. Bernard is about a third recovered. "We really can base a lot of our successful recovery on just the generosity of our fellow Americans."
But the students spoke highly of the generosity of the Gulf Coast residents, many of whom offered food and water and pitched in to help with recovery.
"It's the kind of thing you never forget," said Kate Johnson, 17, a senior. "You tell other people about it, you tell them about your experiences and you hope they'll be inspired to do it, too."
