In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, high schoolers and collegians have skipped beach vacations to help build and restore hundreds of Gulf Coast homes.

For thousands of students, spring break and summer vacation isn’t what it used to be. Wild times on the beach are being put on hold until after the young people help replace houses wrecked by Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane Rita. They call them alternative spring breaks.

Even two and a half years after the storms hit the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts, young volunteers were needed to help build and rebuild residences for families left homeless by the 2005 hurricanes. High school and college students from throughout North America were still flocking to the coasts, many without even being asked.

One of North America's Greatest Volunteer Efforts

They are now in the third year of responding to America’s greatest natural disaster with one of the continents’ greatest volunteer efforts.

They have been working with agencies such as Habitat for Humanity, the Southeast Louisiana Disaster Recovery Ministry, Catholic Charities’ Operation Helping Hands, the Arkansas Baptist Builders, the National Relief Network, Hillel and other faith-based organizations, high schools and colleges.

They have come from such distant schools as St. John’s University in Queens, New York; Stanford University in California; Oberlin and Kenyon colleges in Ohio; Loyola University in Maryland; Dartmouth College in New Hampshire; and the University of Michigan. The volunteers have even included students from high schools such as McDonogh in Owings Mill, Maryland.

Unfortunately in the turmoil after the storms, no one had the time or resources to count the students who poured into Louisiana and Mississippi. However, the many volunteer articles in The Times-Picayune in the past 30 months indicate that the number runs at least into tens of thousands.

Paint Brushes and Jeans Instead of Beer and Bikinis

Instead of beer and bikinis, the students' spring break packages have included paint brushes, gloves, hammers, saws, drills, brooms, caps, jeans and dormitory-type sleeping facilities.

Instead of hanging out at beaches and bars, they have trudged through dilapidated houses, tall weeds, abandoned schools and wrecked neighborhoods.

They have torn out and installed tons of sheetrock; painted the indoors and outdoors of old and new houses; sifted through piles of trash; hauled lumber and debris; sawed thousands of boards; interviewed, counseled and spoken with thousands of victims; installed countless windows and doors; swept hundreds of floors; and surveyed what remained of flooded neighborhoods.

According to the numerous newspaper articles, the students have generally done whatever they were asked to do to help victims and to restore schools and housing. In many cases they have learned new skills as they did them.

Students Have Contributed Thousands of Volunteer Hours

Volunteering for weeks and months at a time, they have given many thousands of work hours and have paid most of their own expenses getting to and from the hurricane sites.

They have been paid with the satisfaction of doing something truly worthwhile and with the sincere gratitude of thousands of families who had been left homeless by the hurricane winds and flooding. The gratitude was often expressed with tears.

The young people were sometimes able to witness house keys being presented to new owners, for houses the students themselves had helped to build or make livable again.

Numerous educators praised the volunteer work as a valuable extension of the students' education and personal development. Some schools shared some of their expenses. Some students, moved by the extent of the damage and the breadth of the suffering, said the experience changed their lives.

In New Orleans’ hard-hit Ninth Ward, Habitat for Humanity volunteers have built scores of colorful new homes in an area called Musicians' Village. The homes are sold to needy families for $75,000.

The village is just one example of the hundreds of new and rebuilt homes that the students have left as monuments to their work.

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"The information included in this article came from ongoing issues of the New Orleans Times-Picayune from 2005 though 2008."

New Orleans Habitat for Humanity: Volunteers Build Hundreds of Houses on Devastated Gulf Coast