By Gabe Sneller, Volunteer and AmeriCorps Program Liaison

Hershey’s Build 2011
“A Sweet Partnership for New Orleans”

At Rebuilding Together New Orleans, we thrive under pressure and love large volunteer builds because they are an opportunity for great change over a short period of time, a chance to help our homeowners and make new partnerships. We have had 1,000+ volunteer builds with emphatic people from all over the world for last year’s 50 for 5 project, we have had our yearly community and local driven October Build, and we have a steady flow of volunteer groups throughout the year, ranging from our usual partners like the Knights of Malta, to college alternative winter and spring breaks, to our new Mennonite Disaster Services volunteer friends.

Coming right off of Spring Break, with hundreds of college students coming down to New Orleans from all over the country, we thought that we were going to have just that, a break of our own, until our next volunteer season strikes up again in the fall. Then we received the great news that 600+ Hershey’s Chocolate Co. volunteers were coming down to work with us sometime in the summer, and that we needed to get ready.

While a seemingly overwhelming task, (600 volunteers for half a day in the tropical heat of May, wow, well alright let’s go) RTNO rose to the occasion and we got to work. Our work teams immediately began getting house after house ready for volunteers as our development team and our Construction Managers started pressing for more and more projects to be opened and prepped. As time wore on we were making progress in leaps and bounds but we were still going to be cutting it pretty close. As the long and hard days grew closer and closer to the build date things were really coming down to the wire; would we have the siding done for these volunteers to prep, would there be enough work to keep 600 people busy, would it rain, could we even get enough tools and supplies for an event of this scale etc…the list went on and on, and so did all of our AmeriCorps members. We called for an all hands on deck scenario pulling in office staff, vistas, and our deconstruction team to man this great event, and like always, the Vistas and the Deconstruction team came through with flying colors.

The volunteers weren’t scheduled to arrive on site between 12:00-1:00, (it takes a lot of time to mobilize 600 people) and our AmeriCorps House Captains, Vistas, and Deconstruction members were ready and waiting. They had their name tags on, their saws sharpened and plugged in, and their paint brushes in hand awaiting the horde of eager volunteers. With site sizes ranging from 5-50-100 volunteers a loud cheer on both sides went up as our teams charged out (kind of like in Braveheart) to meet the buses and get to work.

The volunteers were amazing—exceeding our greatest expectation—and the AmeriCorps House Captains were up to the task of putting them to work and getting the job done. Of course, with events of this scale, unforeseen problems arise, supplies run out, and volunteers get overworked or wind up standing around waiting for a new task. But for this build, every person I visited, at every site I went to, had a smile on their face and a tool in their hand. Volunteers were working in firemen lines laying hundreds and hundreds of squares of sod. They were climbing effortlessly up 28’ extension ladders and were going to work with an outstanding vigor, and all our House Captains could do was keep reloading their paint cups and impact drivers and move them along.

At times like these I find an overwhelming sense of pride for all that RTNO has accomplished, and continues to accomplish, every day, and how each and every member of the staff and AmeriCorps team pulls together to achieve these monumental builds. The Hershey’s Banners that we placed on our target sites have a slogan that read, “A Sweet Partnership for New Orleans” and indeed it was (in the weeks leading up to the event we received case after case of delicious Hershey’s chocolate to give us the energy to keep working) but chocolate aside, it is amazing to watch RTNO come alive and go to work for the City of New Orleans and make our homeowners know that we are not going anywhere and that we will get things done to get them home.

So thank you to Hershey’s, to our homeowners, to the City of New Orleans, all the warehouse and office staff, and especially, to our AmeriCorps members for a great build and for keeping up the amazing work every day.