College Students Clean New Orleans

Contrast the French college students, who are rioting over new youth-employment laws, to this group of American college students giving up their Spring Break to help rebuild New Orleans. The Christian Science Monitor reported Friday about the work groups.

The perhaps 10,000 college students here this month are part of a persistent wave of able-bodied volunteers who are as determined as New Orleansians to raise the city from the lingering muck and malaise of hurricane Katrina. They come to fulfill Christian duty, to understand the devastation firsthand, and to give what they can, which for many is time more than money.

"Everybody talks about all these billions [of dollars] coming down, but on a one-to-one basis they're not seeing anything," says New Orleans City Councilor Cynthia Morrell. "It's an opportunity to go into a depression, and all of a sudden here come these kids, and even adults that come to help, and it's almost as if someone's reaching out a hand and saying, 'It's OK, we'll help you get on your feet.' "

What an encouragement it is to see the kind of kids our country has raised--kids who will sacrifice their own pleasure in order to do something good for other people. They may not be the majority of today's youth (and I hope they are), but they are the best of who we are as Americans, and I'm proud of them.

In a related story, the Houston Chronicle reported Saturday that some of the clean-up volunteers found over $30,o00 stashed in the walls of a house they were working on.

"I thought it was Monopoly money," said Trista Wright, 19, who attends Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, Ga., and has spent her spring break gutting homes.

She and fellow students notified the organizers of their church mission, who, in turn told the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office about it.

After officials verified who was the owner of the home, the money was turned over to her. She suspected the money was placed in the walls by her father, who didn't trust banks after having lived through the Depression.

"To see that woman's face when we told her about the money, that's the kind of positive story that makes all the hard work worthwhile," [Warren Jones Jr., pastor at New Salem Baptist Church,] said. "She said it was a miracle. And when you think about it, it was."