 Media Credit: Evan Krauss Over the weekend, a group of SLU students representing several fraternities, sororities and other student organizations traveled to the city of Kinloch to fix up vacant apartments, which will be inhabited by Hurricane Katrina victims. SLU's "Give Me 5 [Click to enlarge]
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The weedy plots and boarded-up windows of the apartments seem hostile to life; inside, paint is chipped and peeling, floors are destroyed and walls are checkered with gaping holes. The apartments circle a small court that was once teeming with people. The recently refurbished playground in the distance, which is filled with children on this Saturday morning, is one of only two signs that the Kinloch community still exists.The other sign is the volunteers swarming the deserted apartment buildings, among them Kinloch Mayor Keith Conway, other city officials and workers with Faith Beyond Walls, an organization that works closely with the city of Kinloch.Beth Damsgaard-Rodriguez is the program manager of service learning for Faith Beyond Walls. She spent Saturday morning delegating work to volunteers, making sure things ran smoothly and doing odd jobs herself. "Faith Beyond Walls is a faith-based organization that mobilizes volunteers for community improvement," said Damsgaard-Rodriguez as she walked through the dilapidated apartments, labeling and taking inventory of the new windows that are about to be installed. She said the organization was formed as a coalition between the Interfaith Partnership of Metropolitan St. Louis and the St. Louis Clergy Coalition. The collaboration, catalyzed by Pope John Paul II's visit to St. Louis in 1999, was intended to put faith into action and break down religious and racial barriers. The group has since continued its work to both promote religious dialogue and improve the health and safety of its neighborhoods.When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, Damsgaard-Rodriguez said she knew the organization needed to help in some way. "We've got to do something," she said. "I don't know what it is, but we've got to do something." Meanwhile, in New Orleans, people were still stranded in the Superdome, waiting to be rescued and needing food and water, said Damsgaard-Rodriguez. At that point, the city of Kinloch contacted Faith Beyond Walls to tell them that there were 31 empty units that, after being rehabbed, could be used to house refugees from the hurricane. "Those guys had the foresight to think, 'Eventually, people are going to have to leave there, and then what happens?'" Damsgaard-Rodriguez said. There are 5,200 evacuees who are registered through the Red Cross currently living in St. Louis, said Damsgaard-Rodriguez. Most of the evacuees, she said, are living with families; only 2 to 5 percent are living in shelters. Although the details are still being worked out, the city of Kinloch plans to give hurricane victims six months of rent-free housing, after which the rent will be income-contingent.The creators of the project eventually decided to focus on a group of six apartments, all of which had remained abandoned for nearly 10 years. The day of service last Saturday was coordinated by Evan Krauss, who began working with Faith Beyond Walls his freshman year and is now an intern for the organization. "The students volunteer so much of their time here. If it wasn't for them, I don't know how this would get done," Krauss said.More than 91 Saint Louis University students worked at the Kinloch site, clearing out gardens, scraping paint, painting window frames and putting up drywall. Krauss was elated with the "amazing dedication from SLU students." "All I do is propose the offer to them, and the student groups reach out to contact me," Krauss said. The money for rehabilitation comes from donations from faith communities, said Damsgaard-Rodriguez. SLU student groups have already raised nearly $8,000 for the Kinloch project through the "Give Me 5" program, which was created to help Hurricane Katrina victims. Half of that money was raised by Gamma Phi Beta alone, Krauss said. Faith Beyond Walls has no overhead charges and uses 100 percent of the money toward its project, he said.Senior Crystal Balfour and junior Osato Iyamu, both members of Alpha Kappa Alpha, a sorority for black women, came to Kinloch to do service along with a few fellow AKA members. "They [AKA] did it not only to do community service but to bridge the gap between black sororities and while sororities on campus," Iyamu said.The two women also said that the sorority wanted to help with the Faith Beyond Walls project because its focus was to help those displaced by Hurricane Katrina.Alpha Kappa Alpha was one of many SLU organizations helping out on Saturday, among them Alpha Delta Pi, Beta Theta Pi, Kappa Delta, Knights of Columbus, the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, Phi Delta Theta, Sigma Chi, Sigma Phi Epsilon and Women's Club Soccer. The Indian American Student Association and the Muslim Student Association also participated in a Day of Interfaith Service for Collegians (DISC) on Sunday, which featured a discussion between members of different religions, followed by service work. More student organizations, including Jumpstart, will return to the site to help this weekend.Michelle Huske, a senior and member of Kappa Delta sorority, spent Saturday afternoon painting the window frames of the apartments."I'm really excited, because you can kind of envision how pretty it will be," Huske said. "You can picture kids playing outside in the yards." Indeed, a few children were already riding their bikes in between the throngs of volunteers, watching, talking and even helping paint a bit. "It's nice to leave everything a little nicer than you found it," Huske said. Huske happens to be one of the nearly 30 SLU students planning to go on the Thanksgiving trip to New Orleans, which will also be headed by Krauss.Kinloch, located in North St. Louis County about 20 minutes from SLU, was the first all-black community in Missouri and was at one point St. Louis' largest African American neighborhood. Damsgaard-Rodriguez explained that the city of Kinloch deteriorated after Lambert Airport bought out the neighborhood, supposedly to either expand the airport or use the land for sound abatement. The airport bought out schools, homes, businesses and churches before realizing that it had no use for the land. The city of Kinloch bought the buildings back for $1, but the streets remain desolate and many buildings are still vacant. Overhead, airplanes roar past every two or three minutes, a noisy reminder of the devastation Lambert has left in the small neighborhood.A native of St. Louis, Damsgaard-Rodriguez returned to the city in hopes of doing something to ameliorate the situation in Kinloch, which she viewed as a product of institutional racism. "Would we see this in any white community in St. Louis?" she encourages people to ask themselves. Damsgaard-Rodriguez hopes students will look beyond the typical racial and social stereotypes often associated with Kinloch. "I'm of the mindset that a family who lives in this setting doesn't have any less feeling or value for life," Damsgaard-Rodriguez said. "People live here. They've got their families here," she said. "They live here."Damsgaard-Rodriguez said that their goal is to get the buildings in livable condition in two weeks. Although the group had originally planned to have all the rehabilitation done by volunteers, they have decided to hire a contractor to help the project move faster. "Anybody can come and volunteer," Damsgaard-Rodriguez said as two SLU students walked past her, carrying a new window. She turned and gave a few instructions to two girls who were scraping electric blue paint off the walls of a bedroom. "I would welcome anybody who feels like they want to save the world," she said.This Saturday, Nov. 12, the rehabilitation of the apartments in Kinloch will resume with a volunteer shift from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. To help, contact Krauss at ekrauss@faithbeyondwalls.org, or e-mail Damsgaard-Rodriguez at bdrodriguez@faithbeyondwalls.org and let her know how many people will be coming-lunch is provided for volunteers."Either help us, or pray hard," Damsgaard-Rodriguez said. "Or you can do both."
2008 Woodie Awards
