Fraternity goes to New Orleans for spring break trip

After spending less than a week in New Orleans, sophomore Alex Alderson already knows he will be returning in the near future and hopes to return annually.\nOver spring break, Alderson, the community service chair for his fraternity, Delta Kappa Epsilon, and his brothers, made a trip down to the areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina to help in the relief efforts.\n“It was my first time going to New Orleans and I really want to make this an annual thing,” Alderson said. “So much needs to be done there. It’s a great city and I loved it. … Everybody is so nice and a bunch of volunteers had us over to their house for dinner.”\nThe fraternity came to campus in 2001, and as a smaller, lesser-known brotherhood, is currently working on community service efforts to “do something good,” Alderson said.\nBeacon of Hope was the volunteering organization working with the fraternity. \n“It just blew my mind how much destruction is still down there so long after (the hurricane) happened,” Alderson said. “It’s not really in anybody’s mind anymore, but whole neighborhoods are just wrecked and water lines have risen and receded.”\nMost of the volunteer work the fraternity aided in involved helping residential neighborhoods prepare houses for sale so money can be put back into the economy and rebuilding can continue.\nThe brothers removed rock and debris from lawns, in addition to painting over graffiti that was destroying part of the levee, said sophomore Andrew Herrick.\nHerrick and sophomore Vince Marshall, two brothers who went on the trip, plan to go back to New Orleans in the summer and continue to volunteer.\n“It’s just crazy,” Herrick said. “Some parts of the neighborhood we were in had houses that were built up beautifully, but the house next door would be overgrown with weeds with nothing done.” \nThe inconsistency in the subdivisions was one of the main things Herrick said he noticed.\n“Some people don’t have the funds to come back and rebuild their house, obviously that is a huge operation,” he said. “But so many houses in the neighborhoods had nothing done to them.” \nMarshall said lines were visible on the houses where the water had risen up to. \n“Some of the houses were completely gutted,” Marshall said. “We helped clean up the houses in the neighborhood the best we could.”