The Volunteerism Phenomena c/o New Orleans
Habitat for Humanity's "Women Build" program
More than a few CVBs have special sections on their websites these days dedicated to voluntourism, from Seattle to Fort Lauderdale. A host of international tour operators sell voluntourism packages globally, and in 2007, Lonely Planet published Volunteer: A Traveller’s Guide. All of this started because of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.
“Voluntourism has become such a national movement, which is wonderful,” says Mary Beth Romig, spokesperson for the New Orleans Convention & Visitor’s Bureau, and a driving force behind the city’s offical volunteer CSR platform. “We were a sort of petri dish for all that.”
Having volunteered along the Gulf Coast numerous times since Xmas 2006, this journalist has seen the city slowly rebuild. The main tourism areas in the French Quarter, Warehouse/Arts District and Garden District were spared major flooding due to their higher ground. But when you venture into the Faubourg Marigny, Bywater, Lower 9th and Chalmette communities down river, there’s still decades of work to be done.
“When people venture outside the tourist areas they get to experience our front porch culture, where they’ll hear music they’ve never heard before,” says Romig. “Our neighborhoods are so important to New Orleans, to who we are as a city. You know, people always ask why is it taking so long to repair everything, but when you see the scope of the damage, that’s why it takes so long.”
The immediate impression many people have about volunteering is rebuilding homes with Habitat for Humanityand similar organizations. And thinking they can’t participate due to a lack of skill or it’s dangerous. As someone who has worked alongside many, many grandmothers and 10 year-olds, this simply isn’t true.
Anyone can paint, help clean up, use a hammer, measure sheetrock, hand roof tiles to a roofer or use a household drill. Watching an elderly nurse drive home an 8-inch galvanized lag screw through a pressure-treated 2×12 with an industrial strength pneumatic air drill (like those used to change tires in NASCAR) is to see real joy. The camaraderie among strangers, undeniable sense of satisfaction, and meeting locals who you’d never typically meet on vacation are the big, and lasting, payoffs.
New Orleans CVB lists other non-profits on its website if light construction isn’t your clients’ first choice. All of them have had more than enough experience at making people feel comfortable and joining them up with other volunteers. Just some of the ½ or full day volunteer activities include rehabilitating public schools, assisting at food banks, youth outreach, landscaping public parks, and wetlands restoration in the Mississippi Delta.
HOW TO ORGANIZE
New Orleans’ hotels have hosted over two million volunteers to date, so planners have highly organized partners to take care of their clients.
“In the beginning there was tremendous demand but not the organization to handle it,” says Eric Janecke, director of sales & marketing at Hilton New Orleans Riverside. “Now, we have all the resources in place to get people plugged into our non-profit organizations.” Hilton is located next to Harrah’s Casino two blocks from the French Quarter with quick access to the Warehouse/Arts District, the trendiest up-and-coming area in New Orleans. They’ve also just launched a new meetings-oriented CSR page at riversideperks.com. Check it out and tell them Prevue says hi.
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- The Hilton Head Island Difference: CSR in the Lowcountry
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