by Ashley Paramore

OK, so maybe I'm exaggerating a bit. We didn't actually destroy a city … just a couple of houses.

For the second year in a row, Students for Freethought and a Christian campus group, The Thomas Society, went to go rebuild homes in New Orleans. The size of the groups combined was 23 people—the perfect size to make it easy for all group members to mingle with each other at some point of the trip.

The journey to TCC

Our journey began with a 13-hour drive from Columbus all the way down to New Orleans. Intentionally, we mixed up atheists and Christians in each car—whether they knew each other or not. This way, people were forced to talk and get to know each other. Amazingly, the atheists and Christians stuck in the same cars didn't kill each other on the way to New Orleans, and we all arrived safely at the Trinity Christian Community Center (TCC).

TCC, located in a very urban community, hosts volunteers like us, and provides support for the community. TCC has a great after-school program, where kids come out and play on their playground with other kids, and receive help with schooling (which many of our students volunteered to help with).

Now, TCC isn't what most atheists view in their mind as the "Christian Fundies." While they did stress that they are a Christian organization, and have many rules about what can and can't be done at the center (all of which seem to be pretty standard for dorms), they, in my opinion, are very secular. They don't preach to us or evangelize to those we helped (or the kids for that matter), and the church services are held off-site and not mandatory. They do have crosses, and Bible quotes floating around the building, but no more than at my grandparents' house. They made everyone from both groups feel welcome and comfortable.

I had the pleasure of talking with Kevin Brown, Executive Director of the TCC, about the organization a bit, as well as about how they felt about people of other faiths (and of no faith) staying at their center. He said that they welcome all, and have had people from conservative to liberal Christians, atheists, and Jews. He saw all of us as carrying out "God's work," and in a way, the "Christian mission." I was very impressed with both him and the organization, and highly recommend to any other groups considering going down to check them out.

The destruction part, a sad story, and Bourbon Street

When we arrived, we were under the impression we would be working on drywall and painting, but nay. Our first work day started with working on the community center itself. A new basketball court had just been poured, and we needed to remove wooden beams and level the ground. Not too exciting work at first, but then we got to the first house.

It's really amazing that even five years after Hurricane Katrina how huge of a mess it still is. The first house we worked on had been flooded about 2/3 of the way up, an for the most part, personal belongings were cleared out. There was mold everywhere, and it wasn't pretty. It was an easy job though, where we tore out old cabinets, and took out the drywall and ceiling with crowbars, pickaxes, and sledgehammers. If you know anyone who needs a good way to release stress and anger, this is it. We had it knocked out in a day and a half.

The second house was a bit more depressing. It had not been touched at all since Katrina. The entire house was flooded, and literally all personal belongings were still inside. Debris was everywhere, the fridge still had food in it, there was a Cadillac in the garage, a calendar petrified to August of 2005, and we even found a mummified cat.

We kicked butt at that house and cleaned up everything. All the personal belongings were completely cleared out, including the disgusting fridge. We again had our therapeutic moments, perhaps the most invigorating involving destroying an old flooded piano with a pickaxe and sledgehammers. After that, we again tore down drywall, insulation, and ceilings, leaving the house completely gutted after two days.

That house came with the sad story of its lone former resident, though: Patsy Simon, a woman in her 80s who was widowed three years before Katrina. When the storm hit, she refused to leave, and when she finally tried to leave, it was too late: she died in her doorway. This was quite a sobering story we learned from her neighbors. We only learned her name because we found her wallet when cleaning up.

The trip wasn't all house teardown, though—of course, we all spent some time wandering Bourbon Street. This is where the mingling between us really happened. While students did form cliques, they were all full of both Christians and atheists, never just one or the other. Discussions were about politics, what constitutes a "bro" vs. a "d-bag," why we were atheists or Christians—everything really. Nothing was off-limits.

Who kicked more butt?

I feel like the trip really gave everyone better respect for each other. I think everyone, myself included, made some new friends from the opposite group. TCC was very impressed with us, however, to our dismay, they never told us whether it was the atheist or Christians who kicked more butt. In any case, it was a blast, and we've already booked them for our trip again next year.

I'm just really thankful that we got help from the Secular Student Alliance. Without them and their gracious donors out there, secular students like us wouldn't be able to go on trips like this. So, thank you! All of you!

Ashley Paramore is the events coordinator of Students for Freethought at Ohio State University. She is also a member of the Secular Student Alliance Board of Directors.