Looking Back at My Volunteer Experience
I recently spent a weekend with people I hadn’t seen for many years! And it was wonderful!! When I graduated from college I spent a year as an Extension Lay Volunteer. My roommate, Terry, had just graduated from a college in Philadelphia and we met briefly when she and her parents made a trip to California (where I lived at the time). The year was 1968. We spent six weeks (for orientation) in Chicago, and watched on TV as the Democratic Convention unfolded. Then we boarded a flight for New Orleans! There I came face to face with the struggle for Civil Rights. The schools were facing a Federal Injunction – either integrate or don’t open. I saw signs that said “white only” and “colored only” and I had my first (and only!) encounter with the Ku Klux Klan!! Many things have happened since then – both in my life as well as that of New Orleans. The biggest being my life as a Dominican, and Hurricane Katrina and ...