Dear PDA,

My name is Lizzy Kirkham. I'm a 16 year old who lives in Portland, Oregon. I go to school at Lincoln High.

Recently, a group of us high schoolers stayed down in your Luling, Louisiana location to help with the relief efforts. We came there, and everyone in the camp was wary of us. All I could see running though their minds was "Oh my goodness, A group of high schoolers. They're probably not even going to work." That was the first night and day we were there. The group was so large, we broke into two smaller groups of about 12 high schoolers and three leaders.

We came back with stories of a man named Les, whose house was severly water damaged on the first floor. Les was a man who had helped people get out of the area in his boat, despite his broken foot, (or it may have been an ankle, I don't quite remember) and what would later develop into an infection. We all felt sorry for him — his house was unable to be saved.

We also came back with stories of an 80 year old man named Billy, built like Superman. He was rather young looking, he stayed in shape rather well, and he also had hauled all his furniture out of his house, and was able to save a few things like mirrors and his door frames he made by hand. He was a rather optimistic man, he inspired me to see the better in the work we were doing. I felt horrible for having so much when people there have so little. But working with Billy made me feel a load better, like I didn't have to give up everything. He even invited the whole group to come to his house and spend Mardi Gras in New Orleans style.

The second day, we were still working on the same houses, and a lady walked across the street — a lady we would later know as Miss Claire. She and her other sister and brother just got ripped off $7,000. The people working were putting up the drywall right over the damaged, molded ceilings and walls. This was not good. We had a little extra time, so we went over to Miss Claire's house, and amazed them at how fast we could move a trailer loaded with drywall. They thought we were in college, and they never suspected that high schoolers could ever care so much about such a thing. True enough, hardly anybody knows what its like down there. It felt good being able to help them out.

The next day we worked really hard, over across the street from Billy again. We helped them gut well over half their house in one day. We had split into two different groups once again, the group I was with stayed on working at Miss Claire's house. By the next day, we had finished Miss Claire's house, talked to her brother Donald, who was at the house all the days we were working. Their story was scary and also inspirational, like the others we had worked with. Donald, Miss Claire, and the other sister we never fully got to meet were ripped off money they needed for their own use. It made me want to cry when I heard about them loosing all that money.

I am glad I got the opportunity to work with the people I did, and I have those great people in Luling to thank as well as you. So, thank you for letting me experience it. I know this is one vacation I have not felt I have wasted, and will never forget.

Regards,

Lizzy Kirkham
First Presbyterian Church, Portland, Oregon