New Orleans Working Vacations Catch On

'Voluntourists' Rebuild By Day, Party by Night

NEW ORLEANS -- Wearing safety goggles and dust mask, Anita McClendon shouldered a rotten floorboard to the curbside debris pile and then, dirty and dusty, paused to smile. This, she said, "is awesome."

McClendon, 48, and about a dozen other volunteers were gutting the innards of the flood-ravaged Greater Little Zion Baptist Church in the Lower Ninth Ward. It was tough, sweaty work, and for some of the volunteers, it was their vacation.

McClendon, a health care worker from Oakland, Calif., was here for three weeks, ripping down demolished buildings by day -- and dancing to zydeco by night. She and thousands of other volunteers are combining work and play to help rebuild this devastated city.

This month, they are being joined by hundreds of college students spending spring break here and on Mississippi's Gulf Coast. They include 200 students from Howard University, more than 40 from George Washington University and more than two dozen from American University's Washington College of Law. The effort is dubbed "voluntourism," and local leaders say it is critical to the rebuilding because it provides dollar-spending fun lovers and hammer-wielding fixer-uppers all rolled into one.

The more than 1,000 students expected here in the coming weeks will clean out houses and churches and day-care centers. "We'll be slammed with people," said Felix Wai, director of the Mardi Gras Service Corps, a nonprofit group supported by Tulane University, the city of New Orleans and other sponsors.

Residents in some of the hardest-hit neighborhoods are still awaiting a decision by the Federal Emergency Management Agency on how far above ground level homes must be rebuilt to avoid future flooding. There is concern that some voluntourism organizations may be moving too fast, rebuilding in areas that are of questionable safety.

Wai said he is "extremely worried" that some houses his volunteers work on will eventually be in areas slated to be abandoned. But he said that it is important to get people back into their homes, even if later there are zoning and insurance problems.

The Mardi Gras Service Corps is focusing on the most devastated neighborhoods of the city, including the Lower Ninth Ward, Gentilly and Central City. Wai said the group is trying to provide housing, schools, day-care centers and jobs. "Without those four fundamentals," he said, "people won't come back."

The Web site, VolunTourism.org, points out that the combination of volunteerism and tourism dates back centuries: Missionaries, sailors, explorers and others performed social services while visiting new places. The modern iteration began in the 1960s with the launching of the Peace Corps. Study-abroad programs in the 1970s and ecotourism in the 1980s expanded the notion. Volunteer vacations, with organizations such as Earthwatch, really took hold in the 1990s.

Habitat for Humanity, the Georgia-based home-building group for low-income families, offers voluntourism opportunities, called "global village trips," around the world.

"People join a group that travels together to a location," said spokesman Duane Bates. "They build houses during the day and enjoy cultural activities at night."

Habitat also offers a chance for young people to help others in America. Collegiate Challenge is a year-round program in which students work for a week or two to help build houses in needy areas.