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By Heather Parker
Katie Mears’ office is an old warehouse in a blighted neighborhood underneath a major overpass. The building has no air-conditioning and is poorly lit, but it is the nerve center of the Rebuild Program of the Diocese of Louisiana’s Office of Disaster Response.
Mears is not unlike many other young adults who have come to New Orleans, a city that has seen a surge of volunteers from all around the country. It is a noticeable trend, in New Orleans and elsewhere: rather than spending their vacation on the beach or the slopes, young people choose to gut houses. Instead of enrolling in graduate school right away, they pick up a hammer and nails; they embrace outreach positions for a year or more, instead of an entry-level cubicle at a major corporation.
Mears renovates the homes of Hurricane Katrina victims with the help of as many as 30 interns. She spends her days site-hopping between projects and visiting homeowners, doing casework, teaching volunteer orientations, and guiding her interns. She wears T-shirts and shorts to work, and can often be found with tools in her hands and dust on her clothing.
Her story could have been much different.
A few years ago, she was a fresh college grad, Grinnell Class ‘03, with a degree in political organization. Originally from Iowa City, Iowa and a member of Trinity Episcopal Church there, she had worked for political campaigns and her college newspaper, but still Mears felt uneasy, trapped and unfulfilled by the expanse of future possibilities before her.
"I was at that age where I equally liked and disliked everything," she said. "I was trying to figure out where I wanted to go in life."
On her quest, Mears moved to Washington D.C. to take care of an ailing family member. It was at church there that she heard a deacon discussing the situation in post-Katrina New Orleans. Not long after, she moved to New Orleans, where she spent her days working as a rebuilding intern and her nights studying for the LSATs.
"I thought that being a lawyer, having that title, would make me a grown-up. Even if I was an unemployed lawyer, I could always say I was a success," she said.
The destruction was so vast and the needs so great that the Rebuild Program was not formally established when Mears first moved to New Orleans in the frantic months after Hurricane Katrina. Despite the fact that she had never hung sheetrock or tiled a floor, Mears became a leader among the volunteers, organizing the Rebuild Program, buying tools, and recruiting volunteers.
Mears was immersed in gutting houses when her law school acceptance letter arrived. Instead of enrolling, she became coordinator for the Rebuild Program.
The Rev. Ann Winsor, a program associate for the Trinity Grants Program who works with young adult spirituality grants, says young people like Mears and the Rebuilding interns can benefit greatly from participating in "communities of faith." A community of faith, says Winsor, caters to people under 30 who live together for a period of time and usually engage in service together, much like the Rebuilding interns who all live together in a rented house in Uptown New Orleans.
"The community bond helps them discern their path," Winsor says. "There is a level of trust and openness among interns working together in service that would not be found in the private sector."
Mears agrees.
"Even though we are building houses, the work we do is relevant no matter what you go on to do," she said. "Interns gain self-confidence, learn how to assert authority. These skills are relevant for life."
For example, Mears and the interns have to be "on all the time...you can’t sit in a cubicle and take water-cooler breaks or play Minesweeper," she said. "If you are dealing with a crying homeowner, everyone’s eyes are on you to see how you will handle the situation."
For her, the job is about asking homeowners, “How can we help you?” and knowing that there is no limit to what she and the other interns can accomplish. She doubts a job in the corporate world can compete with the life lessons she’s learned through the Rebuild Program.
"This is a good gig," Mears said. "It can be hard and depressing, but no matter why someone is here, whether their motivation is secular or humanist, whether they are here because God told them to come or because the Universe is calling them, we are all together in common mission."
Mears is not wandering anymore. She may never enroll in law school, but the path she’s found fills a place that campaign work or practicing law never could.
"I try to think about one house at a time. I don’t worry about the whole block," she said. "A lot of people are dismissive of the groundwork I am doing, but I think it’s about dealing with people in front of you, day by day. What we are doing is tiny work for tiny stuff, even though what we are accomplishing is not usually as tiny as we think it is."
Heather Parker is publications coordinator
for the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana.
