My Life. My neighborhood. My world. Mike Richards.

Lynette and I are about to wrap up our extraordinary week here in New Orleans. We're completing an intensive training/mentoring experience organized for us by the good folks who created and run the Beacon of Hope Resource Centers. Although many of these wonderful people we've met this week were unknown to us just days ago, we can't help but feel comfortable among our new friends. We, like so many of the neighborhood activists here, are self-starters, grassroots, on-the-street, no nonsense kind of folks who see a problem and can't wait to roll up our sleeves and help to fix what's broken, and build what's missing. In my first post from New Orleans, I described the rigorous schedule of mentoring events arranged by our Beacon of Hope hosts. Throughout the week we met incredible people and saw the amazing things they have done and are doing to rebuild their lives, their neighborhoods, and the great City of New Orleans. Among the stops along the way we visited citizen-based disaster recovery initiatives in neighborhoods that were devastated by Katrina; the "Make it Right" construction site, Lower Ninth Ward, Upper Ninth Ward, Holycross, Broadmoor, Lakeview, Lakewood, Lakeshore, Gentilly, Central City, and East New Orleans. The sense of scope and scale of these folks' good works is awe-inspiring. As my previous post showed, our Beacon of Hope folks did not waste a minute of anybody's time while we were in New Orleans. Our days started early and went late. Time and inspired energy are two of the greatest assets available to a grassroots organizer.

Meet our Mentors

Here is list of most (I'll update this list if I inadvertently overlooked anybody) of the special people who shared their stories and best practice lessons learns with us this week:

This included extensive work with the following disaster recovery leaders in New Orleans:

1. La Toya Cantrell, President, Broadmoor Improvement Association
   www.broadmoorimprovement.com
2. Denise Thornton, President/Founder, Lakewood Beacon of Hope
   Rita LaGrand, Louisiana State "Volunteer of the Year" for 2008
   www.lakewoodbeacon.org
3. Al Petrie, President
   www.lakeviewcivic.org
4. Connie Uddo, Project Director, and Nell Bolton, Executive Director, Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana Disaster Recovery Team
   http://odr.edola.org/
5. Liz McCartney and Zack Rosenburg, Founders/Co-Directors, St. Bernard Project
   http://www.stbernardproject.org/
6. Glenn and Kathy Stoudt, Parent Volunteers, Youth Rebuilding New Orleans
   http://www.yrno.com/involvement.htm
7. Mark Schexnayder, Office of the Chancellor, Louisiana State University Ag Center – Iowa-Louisiana Commercial Exchange, an initiative for mutual economic recovery proposed by Michael Richards of Iowa. Trade in Louisiana Seafood and products, Iowa beef, pork, poultry and other ag goods. A closed loop product transport system where products are delivered in both directions.
8. Lisa Kaichen – The Unified Non-Profit Council of New Orleans has organized post Katrina recovery and rebuilding by bringing together the non-profit sector for collaborative action.
9. Mary Row, Vice President of Urban Programs, The Blue Moon Fund – Blue Moon is a leading national funder of neighborhood based, sustainable development
   www.bluemoonfund.org
10. Make It Right, in-fill home construction initiative in the Lower Ninth Ward founded and funded by actor Brad Pitt.
    http://www.makeitrightnola.org/
11. The New Orleans Institute for Resilience and Innovation
    www.theneworleansinstitute.org
12. Dana Eness of The Urban Conservancy, dedicated to research, education, and advocacy that promote the wise stewardship of the urban built environment and local economies
    http://urbanconservancy.org/
13. New Orleans Neighborhood Network
    http://www.npnnola.com/
14. Nathan Rothstein, Executive Director, The New Orleans Young Urban Rebuilding Professionals Initiative
    www.nolayurp.org
15. Karen Karen Gadbois, Founder, Common Knowledge
    http://www.squanderedheritage.com/
16. Award winning journalists, Michelle Krupa and Chris Rose (Pultizer Prize for Public Service), from the New Orleans Times Picayune gained international acclaim for documenting the Katrina disaster and the community based rebuilding process noted above. The Richards met Rose at the New Orleans Institute on the second day of their work in New Orleans and Michelle Krupa interviewed Mike and Lynette Richards in Cedar Rapids as they were gutting their flooded building in the New Bohemia District of Cedar Rapids.
17. Amy Sins Coordinator; Chefs of New Orleans Help Iowa. Amy organized a truckload of food and staff and fed 1,700 people in Iowa that had been flooded out of their homes and businesses. Amy and Rebuild And Grow will be organizing future fundraising and assistance interchanges with the Chefs of New Orleans and the people of Iowa.
18. Tommy Cvitanovich, Owner, Drago's New Orleans Seafood Restaurant – Tommy exemplifies the community spirit that has rebuilt New Orleans. During the aftermath of Katrina he housed employees in 10 FEMA trailers on site at his restaurant and gave away more than 75,000 meals to people in need. Tommy invited Michael and Lynette Richards to his world famous restaurant DRAGO to talk about community rebuilding initiatives in Iowa.
19. Kristin Palmer, Director, Rebuilding Together/New Orleans 504-388-0138. Rebuilding Together is part of a national network of grassroots organizations around the USA that work to keep low income elderly in traditional older neighborhoods.
    www.rtno.org

From Learning to Doing

While good things do have a way of coming to an end, in this case it will be an end that is the start of a new beginning. Lynette and I are excited and looking forward to getting back to Cedar Rapids where we can share our experience with fellow Rebuild And Grow founders, Timlynn Babitsky and Jim Salmons. We'll then all be ready to roll up our sleeves with renewed inspiration and insights as we apply so much that we learned from the good folks at Beacon of Hope while in the City of New Orleans. A heartfelt thank you goes out to each and every person and organization who helped make our training and mentoring experience the great success that it has been. We will do our best to take what we've learned and use it to help our friends, neighbors, community organizations, and businesses in Cedar Rapids.