1 Otto, APEX

The Other Side of St. Charles

In my twenty-one years of living I have not done much volunteering. Sure, the occasional after-school programs and standing at a booth advertising something for someone somewhere has taken up some of my time but it was mostly just one time occurrences that I chose to be part of at the last minute because a friend asked me for a  favor or because it fit into my schedule and my plans weren’t until later so I could squeeze something in. The only organization which I have been part of multiple times in called UpLift and is located in a warehouse in downtown Kansas City. People who volunteer there stuff trucks with clothes, toiletries, books, water, and food and head out to designated areas in the city and serve the homeless people. It is like a school bus dropping off essentials. We leave at around the same time, get to each stop around the same time, and get back to the warehouse at the same time. It is very orderly and only takes a few hours every time I participate. I’ve met the same people over and over again and it is so fascinating to hear their stories, how they got to this place, where they are going next and so on. I enjoy doing this.

Since arriving in New Orleans, I have done little volunteering. Joining the APEX community will be interesting, I’m sure. My roommate had a class last semester and was required to do service learning and she chose APEX. Every Saturday I would drop her off and come back two hours later to pick her up. The location is mere minutes from my house, but the neighborhood where I will be spending two hours a week is completely different from my own. Living between St. Charles and Prytania, I have grown accustomed to the large, beautifully decorated homes, but my neighborhood is not where the kids who attend the after school program tend to come from. Instead they are considered at risk youths and come from run-down houses and families. I’m hoping to gain a different perspective of New Orleans, because what I know of it so far after four short years seems only to be of the tourist-attraction-what-you-want-to-see-beautiful-side. 

I am hoping that by working with these kids, playing games, doing homework, I will get to see a side of the world that I have had little interaction with before. I am both nervous and excited to see what these kids and this program has to offer. I have heard that New Orleans is a very diverse city but I think this will really open my eyes to just how diverse it is, in many spectrums of social classification.