North Carolina State University Athletics
Lending a helping hand (3/10/09)
3/11/2009 12:00:00 AM | Pack Athletics
Editor’s note: The following travelogue was compiled by six of the representatives of the NC State football team who spent March 1-6 on a service project near Gulfport, Miss. Assistant director of football operations Kit Hughes organized the trip, which also included three players and three graduate assistants.
DAY ONE: Sunday, March 1 (8:15 am EST-11:00 pm CST)
By Kit Hughes
It did not take long to load up the school vans and hit the road, which is a good thing considering the heavy rains and early wake-up call we had to meet at the Murphy Center by 8 a.m. After stopping at the gas station for a quick supply run and some gas, we hit Interstate-40 West and were officially Gulfport bound.
We managed to make excellent time on the first portion of our trip, even while the persistent rain made the drive more interesting that we had hoped. We made two quick stops for food and gas, but mostly we spent the entire day in the van. Most of the passengers took advantage of the time to nap, read and listen to music.
About 90 minutes outside of Atlanta the temperature began to drop and we were faced with our first of several hours of snow. Thick slush began to accumulate on the roads and we were constantly passing unlucky travelers who had slid into guard rails, soft shoulders or, in many cases, other vehicles.
Looking northbound on I-85 we saw an 18-wheeler that had careened off of the highway and launched into a deep and wooded gully. Roughly 20 miles of stopped traffic on the northbound side followed this event, and we were all thankful that we did not run into a similar situation. An hour or two outside of Atlanta the snow stopped and the drive once again began to move smoothly along.
We eventually even saw the sun for the first time and began to make up for some of our lost time in traffic. Most of Georgia and Alabama was smooth sailing. We pulled into Mobile at around 8:30 p.m. CST. Having enjoyed Dreamland Barbecue at the Papajohns.com Bowl in Birmingham last December, we were excited for another opportunity to fill up on ribs, chicken, pork, and the unbelievable barbecue sausage.
Shortly after leaving Dreamland a few t-shirts heavier than when we arrived, we crossed over into Mississippi and were safely at St. Ann Catholic Church by 9:45 p.m. There was only one other group staying at St. Ann during our week here an 11-person service trip from Loyola College in Baltimore.
Everyone was extremely welcoming upon our arrival, and while we were dog tired (and slightly delirious) from our day in the van, we did manage to stay up until nearly 11 p.m. and mix with our new housemates. Sleeping quarters were located in the pavilion at St. Ann, with the men’s area occupying about a third of the dining hall.
The showers were located in an adjacent building, and all-in-all the set up is what we expected. Each of us were supplied with inflatable mattresses for sleeping, and the food was quite good. Both the group from Loyola and the St. Ann volunteer staff/camp hosts were exceptionally kind and generous, and they quickly made us feel at home. I’m pretty sure it took about 2.5 seconds to fall asleep on the first night, and aside from some outrageous snoring from Wayne Crawford, we were all quite comfortable.
We were scheduled to meet our project coordinator, Skip Barrett, in the morning. We are excited to get started on some real work.
Kit Hughes
DAY TWO: Monday, March 2
By Zach Powell
The gang got started around 7:30 a.m. Apparently there was a snoring competition and Wayne was hands down the winner.
After quick showers and some breakfast we were off to meet our main man, project coordinator Skip Barrett, with the day’s assignment in a small town named Pass Christian. It’s a very small town about 6 miles across the Gulf’s shore.
Skip is a really nice older man who explained to us how he helps organize volunteer groups in rebuilding homes that suffered tremendous amounts of water and wind damage. In particular, the older community needs the most help but doesn’t always feel comfortable asking for it. We were told that we would be helping an older man Mr. Ladner with some yard work.
We had no idea that this would be the understatement of the year. After gathering all the various yard tools we could find we arrived at the house. I don’t think the pictures exactly depict how much this house had been in tangled in a mix of brush, vines, briars and trees.
Our job was simple: clear it all out. The task at hand was large, but the group jumped right in. Using rakes, clippers, and Kit’s personal favorite the chainsaw, we managed to save this house from the engulfing vines and brush. The front lawn was the primary objective to clear out. With great teamwork, we had it clean in no time. We awaited the approval of Mr. Ladner, and he was pleased with the work we had done.
Even more so the community was really appreciative of the work we were doing. Many neighbors would stop by and express their gratitude. Many could not believe that we were volunteers because of the great amount of work we were able to complete. Word spread around town and before long, Chip, the mayor of Pass Christian, came down to see what we had been working on all day. We quickly learned that Chip was full of personality and extremely generous with his time and resources during our time on the coast.
He was the most appreciative of all and could not thank us enough.
It was a complete day of battle against nature, with briar cuts and sunburn to prove it. We had cleared out so much we completely lined the side of the road with the torn-out shrubs, briars and vines. To finish the day, Chip brought us some of Pass Christian’s own oysters to express his thanks again. Accompanying Chip was a Pass Christian City Alderman who exclaimed that this was the most work he had seen a volunteer group accomplish in one day!
We drove back to Saint Ann’s and showered and had all the rice, beans, and sausage our stomachs could hold. After playing a couple of games with the other group we headed off to the air mattresses feeling exhausted and satisfied. Only one day down and we already have already made an impact on Pass Christian.
Talking and meeting with the people from the town, you could definitely feel their complete gratitude for the work being done. It was satisfying to feel like we were truly making a difference. I am very excited about just the amount of work we are capable of completing this week and I pray that the following days will be as productive.
Zach Powell
DAY THREE: Tuesday, March 3
By Jeff Archer
Good day. After an eventful evening of Mississippi noises and snoring our bodies started to adjust to all the work we put in on Monday.
Being down here really hits the heart for me since I grew up down in this area. It’s so sad to see all the damage that took place with Hurricane Katrina.
Our day began as we woke up at 7 a.m. We had a quick bite to eat and loaded up the van and headed off to the job site. Our task today was to get rid of all the greenery around the house and cut down a few trees as well. As soon as we started tearing down the trees we knew we had a tough task ahead of us, because it took all six of us to get the large tree down so it would not fall on the house.
We were successful with our task, even with all the chiggers and prickly bushes sticking to us the whole time. The man on the chainsaw the one and only Kit Hughes did some damage to the overgrown brush. We were able to have some fun while we were doing it, so we took a lot of pictures as we went through the day.
After lunch, Mayor Chip stopped by again to thank us for what we were doing and he brought us some more equipment. Once I saw the industrial-strength weed whacker I quickly jumped on it and started whacking as much stuff as possible. Our goal was to have the “forest” of plants chopped down and drug to the street for cleanup.
As we made our way back to the house, a few of the tools decided to break on us so we had to take them to the nearest hardware store for repair. When the tools were dropped off the mayor told us that people were stopping in and asking if we could come to there homes to help them out because of the great job we were doing so far.
When we got to the back of the house we discovered that Mr. Ladner loved to collect cars and lawnmowers. He had four cars in his backyard buried under brush and vines that were obviously damaged by the hurricane. Once we cleared out the entire area we noticed that two of the cars were classics. As the day went on Kit, Wayne, Desmond and I tried to attack an oak tree stump that looked like it had been there since the Civil War. As we began to chop saw and dig it out, we dug up a few lizards so we took a break to observe them for a little bit.
Once the sun started going down, the wonderful bugs of the South decided once again to join us in our adventure, biting us constantly. After we were able to get the stump out, Wayne decided that he was going to take the whole stump down to the street himself, so while Wayne attempted to do that the rest of us started to take all the debris, tree limbs and other objects found in the yard.
We found giant old oak tree that a few of us attempted to climb. Man, was that a sight to see. Once again our favorite mayor came by to check on us and he wanted to show us a little bit of Port Christian. He jumped in the van with us and we began our tour. There were so many beautiful southern plantation homes there. It was very sad to see all the water and wind damage they had sustained. Some of the homes cost millions and millions of dollars. We jumped out of the van and took a group photo in front of one of them so everybody could see.
Once we were done we headed back to the church to get cleaned up for dinner. We had chili dogs and taco salads. Trust me, it wasn’t the best menu for a bunch of football players confined to a relatively small room.
After dinner we played the board game Taboo with the group from Loyola,
Jeff Archer
DAY FOUR: Wednesday, March 4
By Wayne Crawford
Personally, my day started last night, with my first, and possibly last, Taboo experience. I had a hard time contributing to my team’s overall progress, and my guesses proved to be more comedic than helpful.
Our fourth day looked promising, full of new and exciting tasks and adventures. The morning started out well with a good stretch and run, it was definitely the warmest morning of the trip. It ended up being the warmest day. I have a sunburned neck to prove it.
For the third day in a row, Jeff refused to eat the scrambled cheese eggs I prepared for everyone. He kept saying “I can’t eat breakfast,” as he poured himself a bowl of cereal. Well-rested and ready to start the day we set off to Pass Christian where we met up with Mayor Skip.
Sadly, our time at the Ladner House was done and Skip gave us new marching orders. He had us help him widen a road that had been eroded from the storm. We previously assumed this job would take an hour, tops, but were wrong.
When we first started there were two large mounds of dirt waiting (and another of rocks) for us to spread out but we knew we were in for the long haul when two more truckloads of sand and dirt were dropped off. We turned the road from about seven feet wide to thirteen feet. Spreading the heavy sand, dirt and gravel was more strenuous than time-consuming. What took up most of the time was compacting the newly constructed road.
Zach, our fearless leader Kit, and I shared this responsibility. The biggest problem was that the compacter had a top speed of about .1 miles per hour, which meant we could not move very fast to avoid the biting gnats from the underworld. We were basically sitting ducks. By the time the mounds were completely gone the compacter was still going strong.
As I am typing this my hands are quivering from the prolonged exposure to the vibrations of the compacter. The best sound of the day was when the compacter ran out of gas. This was immediately followed by a rejoicing cheer from the whole crew. The work was done, the road was wider the compacter was conked out it was a job well done.
A stop at Sonic on the way back to the church was just what the doctor ordered. Lastly, dinner was, to use one of Kit’s favorite words, “awesome.” The menu called for catfish, fried oysters and fried alligator, which was delicious. I got seconds and thirds. I can’t wait for tomorrow.
Wayne Crawford
DAY FIVE: Thursday, March 5
By Bobby Blick
Our final day in Mississippi started much like the previous days: early. Most of us usually woke up around 7 a.m.
Come to find out, however, some of the guys started their day started a little bit earlier than the rest of us. Zach and Wayne had been getting up around 6 a.m. all week to make sure they got in some sprint training work on a nearby baseball field. How they got up each morning to run after the long days of work we had put in the day before is beyond me.
After our morning breakfast and packing our lunches for the afternoon we set out for our last day of work in Pass Christian. The day before we had worked all on our main man Skip Barrett’s property widening a road that had been washed out by the storm.
We swung by Skip’s place to check out our handiwork and discovered some sections of the gravel road needed to be re-packed and smoothed out. Seeing that it was a one-man job, Wayne took one for the team and volunteered to finish it up while we ventured to our next site. Skip brought Wayne to us later when he finished up.
Meanwhile, we headed toward the newly built Pass Christian Elementary School to help haul some lumber and establish a foundation for a proposed playground. We spent the morning cutting lumber and organizing it into sections, laying our piles out across the property. After leaving the playground behind, we ventured down the road to our favorite jobsite of the trip, Mr. Ladner’s house.
I felt, as a group, we really began to take ownership of this job. Clearing this land of debris and downed trees was what some people might call “tedious”. In reality this was a heck of a task. Honestly, we weren’t just clearing land; it felt like we were having a physical fight with a flat-out forest. We all have the scrapes and scratches to prove it. I don’t think I’ve ever had that much fun with a chain saw.
As a result, finishing up this jobsite became a top priority for us, because we had poured that much work into this property we wanted to leave our mark on this old house. I can assure you we definitely did, so much so, that at one point a neighbor stopped by to ask how much we were making for clearing all this land.
His reaction was priceless after we told him we were volunteers, his exact words, “I ain’t ever seen volunteers like that”. Those quick words made the whole week of work worthwhile. After posing for a couple pictures with tools in hand we stood back and looked at our accomplishments, we had covered a lot of ground in these three days.
After packing up our gear we ran by City Hall real quick to part ways with the mayor. This guy had really taken care of us over the week and he was quite a character. He hooked us up with some oysters earlier in the week and he ran us by a local shirt shop on our way out and bought us all Mardi Gras T-shirts. He thanked us for our hard work and we thanked him for his unbelievable hospitality.
Getting back to St. Ann’s we quickly sat down to table for some much desired dinner. Menu for tonight was good ole “Po-Boy” sandwiches, essentially a build your own burger on French bread. The food there was unbelievable and our cook Glen always made sure we had enough to fill our football appetites.
After dinner we spent some time with Karen, the lady in charge of Project Hope and Compassion at St. Ann’s. She is a special lady and the work they are doing there at her small parish in Mississippi is making a world of difference. Her stories are amazing.
Cleaning up after dinner, we sat down with the crew from Loyola and enjoyed our last night with them before packing up our van for our long trip home. After a quick vote we all decided to get an early start on the drive, a 5 a.m. departure. You know the old saying early to bed, early to rise. Of course once my head hit the pillow it didn’t take long before I was out like a light. Until, that is, Wayne started sawing some serious lumber. We learned during the week that there was a trick: you had to fall asleep before he did. If not, you didn’t stand a chance. Well, at least, I can sleep on the car ride home.
Next time, I’m bringing a muzzle.
Bobby Blick
DAY SIX: Friday, March 6
By Kit Hughes
FIVE a.m.!
Somehow, even with our bodies sore from four days of work and little rest, we were able to pull everything together quickly and hit the road shortly before 5:30. We took care of the majority of the packing and cleaning before bed last night mopping floors, cleaning bathrooms, sweeping out our living quarters, and organizing the van so after stacking our air beds and pulling things together we bid a fond farewell to St. Ann’s Catholic Church.
Even if this remains my only contact with the staff there that took unbelievable care of us, I know that we will remember this place forever. Karen Parker (the volunteer coordinator and our main contact) is one of the most unbelievable, positive and energetic people that I have ever met.
Like many people in the area, Karen lost her business as a result of Katrina and was forced to find a new path for her life and family moving forward. One way in which she has been able to do that is through “Project Hope and Compassion” and the various volunteer groups she helps to host throughout the year.
After spending more time talking with Karen last night, I will leave here both inspired and motivated to continue finding ways to help our players get involved with the community. One of Karen’s parting comments to me was, “We are not the only ones. There are people all around you who need your help too.”
Not only was this the sort of insightful and humble comment that I had grown to expect from Karen, but it also was completely on-target. There are a lot of people here in North Carolina who could use the help of some strong, able, motivated young men. If we could possibly couple an extended trip like this one with several shorter “day trips,” it could provide a great opportunity for more people to get involved with a project that suits their goals and interests. Definitely some food for thought.
Once packed and loaded into the van, we dialed up the Murphy Center on our GPS and hit the road. Most of the group barely entered consciousness leaving the church and getting settled into the van, and the first few hours were spent in virtual silence as everyone sought a few extra hours of sleep.
The trip home seemed to go much more smoothly and quickly than our trip south. Other than one quick stop in Alabama for some breakfast at the BK Lounge, we stopped infrequently (just gas stops) and kept the foot on the gas. Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia seemed to fly by and we drove through lunch listening to the comic styling of Dave Chappelle, Dane Cook and Katt Williams on Wayne’s iPod.
Entering Atlanta, we decided to take a quick detour off of the highway and check our Turner Field, home of the Atlanta Braves. It was the first time that I had been to Turner Field, and it was every bit as big as I had imagined. It was great taking a few minutes to tour around Atlanta and check out the remaining structures and artwork left behind by the 1996 Summer Olympics. It was a needed distraction from the trip, and gave a few of us some insight to a city that we had never seen before.
Once back on the highway, we continued to make good time until we hit Charlotte! City traffic entering Charlotte was at a complete standstill and without the quick thinking of Bobby Blick, we may have been in for a long day on the road. Instead of staying on I-85, we shot over to Hwy 49 and made some decent time on the single and double lane roads winding through towns like Richfield, Denton, and Liberty.
Finally making it to I-40, we finished the trip with a straight shot to Raleigh and stopped in at Quizno’s on Edward’s Mill Road for a quick dinner-to-go. It felt as if we were gone for weeks as we pulled into the Murphy Center parking lot, and after unpacking and cleaning the van it was hugs and high-fives before parting ways for the first time in more than 136 hours!
There is no doubt that we grew both as individuals and a group on our southern adventure. From the hours in the van, to the various job sites, to our time at St. Ann, I know that we all grew closer together and developed an even greater respect and appreciation for one another. This was team building unlike anything I had been a part of before!
I would have to say that I got even more than I had hoped for out of this trip. The guys did a phenomenal job and worked hard to make everyone associated with Wolfpack football and North Carolina State University extremely proud. Without question, I feel that mission was accomplished.
One of my most memorable moments came on the final night at St. Ann when we spent some time with the kids from Loyola reflecting on the week’s work and our time in Mississippi. One of their travel party, a young man named Dave, shared with the group how inspired he was by our players. He recognized how much they had given up using virtually their only free week of the year to head south and work within this needy community. He spoke about the sacrifices that our players have made with regard to their every day lives on campus, as well as how much they gave up to participate in our service trip (not seeing family or friends and working hard during a time of rest). The fact that another group of students would find inspiration from the work and sacrifice of our players did truly made this trip worth it for me.
Watching our guys wrap their arms around the various projects we were assigned and genuinely connect with the people of the local community provided me with a fantastic example of how important it is to find opportunities for student-athletes to get out and learn from the world around them. Each project was a success for us because each project actually mattered to the group as a whole. This came through loud and clear to the community of Pass Christian, and their gratitude was all the reward we were looking for.
Kit Hughes
