Blog Post #4, LBPF, Gabrielle Gatto

         The prompt for this last post guided me immediately to a set of pictures in the New Canal Lighthouse education center where I give tours. The picture is a map of the Pontchartrain Basin in 2009, and then placed under it, a projected image of what will be left of it in 2100.  Looking back, I first chose this placement solely because I felt bad no one approached the LPBF (Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation) table at the SERVE fair, but now, it’s these images that solidify my commitment to the organization and have me confident I chose the right placement. New Orleans will be completely submerged under water if efforts to save our coast are not followed through with. This frightening image is what led me to respect community engagement specifically in New Orleans. Raising awareness about the important issues is vital to growth and sustainability. When I look back on our time in class together, supplemented with my time at my Service Learning placement, I see an opportunity well sought out after. I’m proud of the work I have done in both arenas, and learned a lot about myself as well. Academically, I think I will draw more connections from two seemingly unrelated ideas. Forced to become creative in my analytical thinking, I found new avenues to let my mind wander down. This reminded me of Tim Morton’s lecture on ecology and my arduous endeavor to link his concepts to scenes from the plays we studied earlier in the semester. My other blog posts include the cast of characters I volunteer with who were surprised I wasn’t placed there for an environmental class. Now, when visitors ask about my service learning, my coworkers and I laugh and tell them, “it just makes sense somehow,” when it absolutely did not a few months ago. 

          The coast of Louisiana should be like Shakespeare’s famous works:preserved and maintained. Part of my “monologue” that is my tour, is to repeat and expand on what preservation and maintenance means for natural and man made defenses that protect our coast. Besides Shakespeare, this led me to think about the immense effort put into preserving the Declaration of Independence and other important documents. There are scientists and preservationists working around the clock to keep these documents safe for posterity-this is similar to what we do with Shakespeare and why we still study him in order to keep him alive. The coast of Louisiana needs the same tender loving care. The same careful efforts also need to implemented in order to preserve and maintain the coast. I plan to continue volunteering as a docent at the lighthouse. Raising awareness is something that has become very important to me, just as awareness of Shakespeare's work is still vital to literature around the world. I think I really benefitted from this experience-I've met some incredible people, learned a lot about the environment around me, and as cliche as it sounds, I feel I've done some good. I've never had a service learning class before, so I would just like to thank Dr. Eklund for the opportunity;it really was worthwhile.