St. John's, Duxbury youth at St. Anna's Parish in New Orleans during Holy Week
Over Holy Week, 38 high school youth and seven adult chaperones from the Church of St. John the Evangelist in Duxbury traveled 36 hours by train to New Orleans to work with the organization Camp Restore to help in the ongoing recovery process of "restoring faith, home and community" for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and resulting levee failure in 2005.
The mission team attended the Palm Sunday service at St. Anna's Parish and worked throughout the week building fences and staircases, tiling floors and mudding and sheetrocking several homes. The group also spent time helping several nonprofits thoughout the city, such as ARC of Greater New Orleans and Lower 9th Village.
On the last day, the team worked on the St. John Berchmans Center. The center, first used as an orphanage, dates back to 1926. The building, vacant since the hurricane, is currently being renovated so that the Sisters of the Holy Family can return from Africa to continue their mission of educating New Orleans children.
The Duxbury volunteers are part of this Camp Restore video about restoring the center.