Wolves on the Prowl

On November 8, 2008, I participated in the 7th annual Wolves on the Prowl Community Service Day at Loyola University of New Orleans. Throughout the country, students and alumni participate to help "roll up their sleeves for charity" and Wolves on the Prowl is an opportunity for students to interact with local communities and get a real hand on life and how together one can make a difference.
During Wolves on the Prowl, students were presented with various activities to choose from including: a field day at Good Shepherd School, painting at Andrew H. Wilson Charter School, planting pots at Project SMILE, cleaning a New Orleans Recreation Department park, and cleaning the break room at Loyola. I chose to clean up the break room under the Dana Center. Upon arriving to the break room, we were told to clean out the entire room and remove the old furniture and refurbishing the room with new furniture. The task seemed impossible, the room was piled with old furniture and unused products. Fortunately, with a pair of gloves and some heavy lifting, the old furniture was discarded and the room was nearly finished. Most of the room was finished by others since the leaders sent some of us toward the old library and Thomas Hall. I thought the break room was bad, this was much worse. This time, we had to move large tables out of the library and place them into a truck where they would be taken to an organization for use. Several of us were used to carry the tables into the truck but we got it done after a few hours. We even got to explore the unused residence building, Thomas Hall. I will admit the building was not very pleasant in its current state but overall, was quite an extraordinary discovery. The building reminded me of being inside a castle especially the spiral staircase leading to the bell tower. After everything got done and the truck was loaded, we proceeded back to the Dana Center where the break room had been cleaned and ready to load furniture in.Upon the end of the day, I had learned to better respect community service because if it were not for us sacrificing a couple hours of our time to load some tables into a truck, the organization would not have been able to complete its activities. I feel that i made a difference to help those children along with feeling a sense of accomplishment that I helped out in my community.
Another organization I learned of that makes a difference in New Orleans is the Youth Building New Orleans organization. It is a nonprofit organization that focuses on the recovery of New Orleans open to everyone willing to make a difference. Its mission to help youth make a difference in helping restore New Orleans and its vision is to allow the youth to make a difference in the world because they are the ones who are going to shape the future of this world.