Native American Village @ Blogspot

The blog companion to the Native American Village, the free community and careers site for indigenous peoples, part of the IMDiversity.com Multicultural Villages network.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

From Reznet: Moving Images from a Spring Break on the Gulf

This is the time of year across the country that "boys and girls go WILD," as the screaming video boxes and late-night direct response ads put it, descending on tropical cities en masse for spring break. But in recent years, some young people have undertaken to put their spring break energies towards something other than drinking and carrying on, through alternative spring breaks providing assistance to the rebuilding of the Gulf region.

Just one such young person was Sarah Welliver, Métis, a contributor to Reznet and a senior studying photojournalism at the University of Montana in Missoula. We wanted to call attention to her moving photo essay at Reznet, Rebuilding the Abandoned. It is based on her travels to volunteer in Mississippi, reminding us that while our company's hometown of New Orleans certainly faced its share of catastrophe during and after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, there remains enormous work to do throughout the impacted neighboring states that are sometimes left out of the public eye. Among the smaller communities devastated but little covered in the major news headlines was the area ofwith death comes life" and that such personal acts have the capacity to bring about positive change after the crisis is over.

Hats off to the young journalists at Reznet for their continuing coverage. And hats off, too, to the thousands of students of all backgrounds across the country who are bringing their volunteer energies to aid their southern neighbors this season.