What the trip meant to me – junior Jonathan Webster

The Alabama trip has made a large impact on my life.  I can speak for everyone on the trip and say we are more grateful for what we all have and how lucky we are to have a home and a bed.

I was in Mr. Bloodworth’s van on the way up, and it consisted of all of us sleeping the whole way. The next morning we all got ready and left the hotel by around 7:30 a.m. We went to the volunteer center and received instructions about what we were allowed to do and what we were not allowed to do.  We were all introduced to asbestos in the meeting and were told to stay away from it.  He told us that someone would probably step on a nail (and Haley Zwecker did on our first day). He also warned us about the homeowners who are not afraid to shoot people to get them off of their property. It was a little bit of an eye-opener that these people have been through a lot and will not take anything from looters or trespassers. Thankfully we never had any contact with this on our trip.

We all made our way to the worksite to begin a long day of work. Once we arrived on the worksite everyone took in the amount of damage and destruction that had occurred in Tuscaloosa. You see the videos and everything online and on TV, but once you see it in person it is so much worse.  We began working hard — everyone giving a helping hand to one another if they needed it; there was real camaraderie between the group. I took a minute to go through the house and look around. I found a couple of family photos in the rubble.  It just hit home how horrible this disaster was.  It made me think what if this happened to me? It was sad to see that these families had lost nearly everything. Everyone was really motivated to work hard on the first day. We found the storm hatch that the family had stayed in, and we heard that they had to fit 14 people in there. Jordan Schumann and I went down there and we were squished as it was, so it was amazing to think that they fit 14 people in that tiny space. We continued to work hard lugging wood, trees and other trash to the street. The heat had reached its highest point of the summer thus far, and everyone could feel it.

At lunch the relief staff greeted us and they served us and thanked us for our support and help. It was a good feeling knowing that your efforts were making a little bit of a difference.  The rest of the days were much of the same, but nothing was more eye opening than the first day of work. Everyone realized what we had to do and just did it.  No one complained and everyone worked hard.

I can proudly say that the group bonded and new friendships were made.  Everyone, whether they knew it or not, was making a difference out there, and we will all have a connection that we gave up our first week of summer to work hard in the hot summer heat of Alabama to give a helping hand. For me this experience brought me back down to earth and will forever make me grateful for the wonderful things I have, and I will always think of the families who lost their home or a loved one from the tornado in Tuscaloosa.

-Jonathan Webster, Class of 2012

 

“My second home”

Laura Agront-Hobbs is an Upper School Spanish teacher. She also coaches track and the 2010 volleyball team.

Last Friday, I gave the final exam to my students and then graded them for roughly 20 straight hours because I wanted to be able to go to Alabama on Monday, May 30 to volunteer and help clean up the damage left behind by a severely deadly tornado. On Monday I packed my personal items and left for Tuscaloosa. This trip was more personal to me than most people in the group because I consider Tuscaloosa my second home. I lived there for 15 years. My son was born there and my daughter was 11 years old when we left Tuscaloosa. I had an idea of what to expect there, but I didn’t think it was going to be that devastating.

There were many areas that got destroyed by the tornado, like 15th Street where my son lives. There were many businesses and homes destroyed near his place, but luckily his condo is fine. I was anxious to see the reaction of the kids and to see if they were ready for that kind of work. Boy, were they ready! I have never seen a group of students and teachers work so hard. It felt like it was 130 degrees, but that didn’t stop us. Going to Tuscaloosa was one of the most memorable and rewarding experiences I have ever had (besides giving birth to my children and participating in the Olympics). Despite all of the heat, dust, exhaustion and smell, I would do it all over again. If I had the opportunity to volunteer for something like this again, I would like to be joined by the same group of students and staff members because they never complained and never gave up. The only thing I heard was “it’s hot”… and it was! I spent most of my time working with two former students (Sam Shapiro and Kate Hornor), and they never stopped working. If I needed help with anything too big, I would ask them and they were ready to work.

My last day in Tuscaloosa I had the opportunity to meet a guy who survived the Tornado. The day before, Jason Smith, several girls and I helped clean what was left of his property. After he told me his story I couldn’t believe that he was still alive. He couldn’t leave the neighborhood and was stuck in his truck during the tornado. He told us that a tree fell down on his truck and that it pretty much saved his life. He also mentioned that he saw houses flying away. I am still amazed at how hard this group of students and staff members worked for three consecutive days, and I’m glad that I was part of that amazing group.

Day Three: Our last day

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I’m not sure if it is because the kind of kid who wants to go to Alabama and work in the hot sun during their first full week of summer is a different caliber of kid, but I was really impressed by our students on this trip. We have a well-rounded group whose personalities added so much life and fun to the trip. All of these kids worked their tails off for the last three days — I mean really worked hard. But it wasn’t just the kids. The faculty were amazing. Ricks Carson, Jane Sibley, Jason Smith, Tommy Hattori, Regina Tate, Laura Agront-Hobbs, Donice Bloodworth, Sara Siegel, Dan Walls and Lee Wilson all set a great example for the kids by working hard and pouring every bit of their energy into whatever they were doing. Of course Trish Anderson and Jonathan Day, who organized the trip, were working hard with chain saws and pouring down sweat. They also made sure we were maximizing our impact in Tuscaloosa by keeping us moving from one assignment to the next.

Today, on our last day, I really felt like we got a lot done even though we stopped working at around 11:30 a.m. For me, our last assignment of the day was the saddest. After we finished cleaning up two other lots, we were told there was a house on the corner of the street that needed our attention. There was a ton of debris and trees that were on top of more debris and trees, and it all needed to be picked up and brought to the front of the property for removal. Ms. Anderson could use the chainsaw again! When we pulled up to the property, I got my camera and walked around a bit. Next to this property was an empty lot that once contained a house and now contained a bare slab of concrete. I took a picture of a sign designating the slab, formerly a house, unsafe. As I looked over to the left, I saw a stake in the ground, but this one had a ribbon and a silk rose tied to it. It was the first place we had seen that I knew for a fact that someone who lived there died. We’d seen lots of houses that you could surmise that the homeowners didn’t make it, but we really didn’t know. This one we definitely knew. That really hit me. Later we would talk to a man who said an elderly woman was pulled from the house and taken to the hospital where he figures she died.

We got a lot done at our assignment this morning. Underneath some of the debris was a marble headstone for the homeowners’ two hunting dogs, Kelly and Bo. Any time we found things like this, whether it be a headstone, or a letter, or a picture, or a baby’s shoes, it made it so much more real. It made it more meaningful for me, but it also made me want to learn more about the people who owned the houses. Where are they now? Were they home when it happened? Would they still want that picture or pair of shoes?

After Mr. Day called the end of the day, we walked back to the church, and Coach A and I saw a man working at the house we worked on yesterday that had the WWII letters. Coach Agront wanted to talk to him to find out his story. I yelled for Claire, Haley, Morgan and Danielle to come with us. They were pretty fascinated yesterday and had taken a few of the letters back to the hotel with them last night to read and return today. We found out this 30-something, corn-fed country guy was actually the great-grandson of the man and woman of the letters. He had just inherited the house from his grandmother who had passed, and he was trying to fix it up and keep it in good shape. He told us, between spits of chewing tobacco, of his encounter with the deadly tornado. He said he knew it was coming, and he could hear everyone outside in the neighborhood screaming and saw them running around. He got in his truck and made it to the end of his driveway before he saw it coming down the street and realized he couldn’t make it. Rather than getting out and going inside, he drove his truck to the side of his house and got down low in the floor board. His yellow lab was in his outdoor pen and he said he just didn’t have time to get out and save him. Luckily the dog sensed the tornado and ran to a hole in the crawlspace of the house. The truck sway back and forth, and he said he just prayed and ask the Lord to keep him safe.

He made it out okay with his yellow lab, and now he was just trying to move forward with his life and his house. He was very grateful to us and appreciative of the work we were doing. It was nice to have that feedback from him. It made me feel really good about what we were doing, and I know the girls felt that too. Yesterday, I surprised the kids and teachers with Frostys from Wendy’s when they got back from working (I had left early to come back to the hotel and write). While I was at Wendy’s, the manager talked to me a little about what we were doing, and a random guy in the restaurant came up and thanked me and offered to help me out with the 36 small, delicious, icy-cold treats (can you tell I love Frostys?). He said that he appreciates everything we were doing, especially with it being so hot outside. It was really sweet — both what the guy said and the milkshake. 🙂

In the next week or so, I am going to post more about the trip. Hopefully we will have a couple students write about their experience, so check back every once in a while. I am very thankful to have gone on this trip, and I am grateful to everyone who allowed us to go. Trish Anderson, Jonathan Day and our head of school Fred Assaf: thank you for organizing and supporting what I am sure was a very rewarding trip for everyone who went. – Ms. Tanner

Conditions closer to the University of Alabama

Last night, I drove around town to see how far the damage went. I have never been to Tuscaloosa before (I am a Gator—I try to stay out of enemy territory), so I am not sure exactly where I was in comparison to … really anything. According to Google maps, this was across from the mall and near Target on 15th. I believe that is a hospital in the background of this picture.

I pulled over to take this, but I wish I could have taken video. It went on like this for a couple miles. Scary stuff, especially since the college is right there. Coach A’s son goes to school there, and I bet she wasn’t the only scared Mom during the storm! I just read that UA opened a hotline for parents to call if they were concerned about their child’s whereabouts. I can’t even imagine …

-Ms. Tanner

Day Two: Record high temps for today

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Thank goodness for the breeze.

This morning we separated into two groups and each group took a house. The girls got an elderly man’s house closer to the church. The house was boarded up, so we aren’t sure what happened to the homeowner. It looked like he had a backyard shed/garage that came down and the big trucks couldn’t get back there to get everything, so the girls and Mr. Smith (the only guy in our group) were responsible for moving all the debris to the front yard. The boys’ group was a few streets down. They had to remove trees and debris from a piece of land that once had a house on it, but it was bulldozed recently. In order to rebuild, the city needed all the debris from the back cleaned up and brought to the front of the yard, so the truckers could take it.

The girls were fascinated with the house to which they were assigned. The man who owned the home must have kept a lot of memories in his backyard shed. In the rubble we found old radio user manuals, many books about teaching Bible study, and what caused many an “awwwww” among our romantic teenage girls — letters home to his wife from when he served in the military during WWII. I think that particular assignment took longer than it should have because they took a little extra care sifting through the old man’s things. The girls set up a table of any personal items they found just in case the owner decides to come back home. The girls are going to check with the church — and we have his name, Mr. Hilt — to see if there is a way to get his things back to him.

End of the First Day = Exhaustion

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We just got back from our first day working. Today was excruciatingly hot, a whopping 96 degrees, but we made it through somehow. The purpose of this trip is to get out in the sun, get our hands dirty, reach out to a community and help get a job done that desperately needs to get done. We accomplished all those things today and more, leaving us all exhausted, sunburnt  and anticipating our big BBQ dinner at Dreamland we will have in an hour or so. The kids worked really hard today even though it was unbearably hot. They were amazing.

We reported for duty this morning at 8 a.m. at the McAbee Activity Center that was serving as the Volunteer Reception Center. We were greeted by Bill, an older gentlemen who has volunteered his time at the center since the tornado in April, and we were given a quick safety run-through by an Americorps volunteer who made sure we knew what we were getting into: possible looters (we saw none), possible encounters with angry homeowners (unfortunately where we went, there were no homeowners at all), and warned us about nails and sharp objects (poor Haley stepped on a nail, but she was well taken care of and is fine now).

We then headed down the road in our Pace fleet of 7 cars and took a right at what Bill From The Volunteer Center coined “the carnival.” He said you’d see the tents with workers and volunteers. Making our way down the road, we really started to see the damage. Everything was gone. I don’t think we saw a house today in that neighborhood that was livable or salvageable. The whole place was pretty much leveled.

We checked in with Soma Church whose members manage the homes that are ready for volunteer clean-up. Essentially Soma Church was set, untouched, among fields of homes that were obliterated by the storm. The only evidence left of their existences were in piles of debris and rubble. Immediately next door to the church, was what looked like a trailer park. Mr. Carson and I stopped to look around and we realized that there was really no way there could have been survivors in those homes. It was awful to see the belongings of people who lived in this area — people who may not have made it. There were teddy bears and toys, clothes, christmas decorations, books and remnants of cars.

We got our assignment and pulled up in front of a tiny brick ranch, that for the most part held up a little better than its neighbors. The roof was gone, the top third of the house was gone, but you could still make out the framework. The owners must have owned two sheds (or what looked like sheds) in the back of the house, and they were destroyed with their contents thrown all over the yard. There was so much damage, and it wasn’t close to being the worst one in the area. What struck me as odd was that we were really the only ones out there. There were men working with the heavy equipment clearing out debris, but there were hardly any volunteers. We spent all day on one house, and we still aren’t through; we’ll be back in the morning finishing that one up. With 36 people. There is a ton of work to do in that neighborhood, but no one there to do it.

Here are some pictures of our day. I believe we are going to go near the University of Alabama campus after dinner. That was where the video from Anderson Cooper was taken from my first post. I’m sure that I will have more to write about after I get some food in me. I have a video that I will post as soon as I edit it. Look for it later tonight. Thanks for reading!! -Ms. Tanner

Leaving Pace on May 30

Twenty-four Pace Academy Upper Schoolers will caravan with 14 faculty members to Tuscaloosa on Monday, May 30 to provide tornado clean-up relief to the central Alabama town—home to the University of Alabama. They will return on Thursday, June 2.

Tuscaloosa, one of the hardest hit cities on April 27, was part of a multi-state sweep of at least 164 tornadoes that touched down and killed more than 200 people — just in Alabama, according to the Washington Post, which documented President Obama’s visit on April 29.

The trip is organized by service director Tricia Anderson and dean of honor and discipline Jonathan Day. “We don’t know exactly what we will be doing there, but we want to be as helpful as possible and do anything they need us to do,” said Day. He said he imagines that the work will involve debris cleanup, which is the first step in helping the area recover.

Here is a video of the destruction. Courtesy of YouTube.