{"id":833,"date":"2016-02-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-02-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chisnell.www216-119-142-248.a2hosted.com\/chizblog\/?p=833"},"modified":"2017-12-27T23:49:46","modified_gmt":"2017-12-27T23:49:46","slug":"some-hope-for-holly-springs-royal-oak-interact-in-mississippi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/some-hope-for-holly-springs-royal-oak-interact-in-mississippi\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Hope for Holly Springs:\u00a0 Royal Oak Interact in Mississippi"},"content":{"rendered":"

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.0.92″ background_layout=”light”]<\/p>\n

Ten years ago, my Interact (youth Rotary) students told me that they wanted to do more than simply stage charity drives\u2014they wanted to go out and help people directly. But as a high school English teacher, I hardly knew where to begin.<\/p>\n

On top of simply finding the means to coordinate with local relief agencies, many with whom we inquired either doubted the ability of teenagers to do serious disaster relief work or had rules denying them the opportunity to help.<\/p>\n

National Relief Network of Greenville, MI (nrn.org) is perhaps the only non-profit in the country that both believed in our students and could coordinate with FEMA and state and local agencies to help assist those families who too often fall through the cracks of traditional relief efforts.<\/p>\n

Through NRN, more than 500 Royal Oak High School students over the past 10 years have worked to help families after Hurricanes Katrina, Isaac, and Ike, tornadoes in Joplin, Birmingham, and Little Rock, and floods in Louisiana and Kentucky. We have worked on the largest environmental restoration project in human history along the Gulf Coast, planting cypress trees to protect the shoreline; and we have worked alongside the US Army Corps of Engineers in the hot dust of Joplin.<\/p>\n

This week, Interact of Royal Oak takes nearly 50 more students to Holly Springs, Mississippi, where a Christmas-time tornado destroyed dozens of homes. The students have raised hundreds of dollars each to spend their winter break working to the limits of their capacity.<\/p>\n

I do it for what they will learn.\u00a0 As the advisor of this youth Rotary club, I have become interested in efficacy, a student\u2019s ability (and belief in that ability) to affect the world in meaningful ways. It is an idea that speaks to the core of democracy, to compassion , and to individual future success and happiness.<\/p>\n

Apathy does not spring from boredom but from, I believe, a disbelief that there is anything which can be done.\u00a0 Our votes don\u2019t seem to count, human tragedies on the news appear too vast and distant, and little looks worthy of our time but the time required to earn a diminishing paycheck.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know exactly what each student will learn this week, but that they have volunteered each year is not merely because the work is fun\u2014it is not.\u00a0 They come because they learn something truly important.<\/p>\n

Over the next week, you can expect to hear from some of these students with updates on our work and their personal reflections on it.\u00a0 Enjoy them as I\u00a0will.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Find all of the posts for this trip on the Alt Feb section of the Interact website.<\/a><\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div> Ten years ago, my Interact (youth Rotary) students told me that they wanted to do more than simply stage charity drives\u2014they wanted to go out and help people directly. But as a high school English teacher, I hardly knew where to begin. On top of simply finding the means to coordinate with local relief […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"

\"4riana5\"Ten years ago, my Interact (youth Rotary) students told me that they wanted to do more than simply stage charity drives\u2014they wanted to go out and help people directly. But as a high school English teacher, I hardly knew where to begin.<\/p>

On top of simply finding the means to coordinate with local relief agencies, many with whom we inquired either doubted the ability of teenagers to do serious disaster relief work or had rules denying them the opportunity to help.<\/p>

National Relief Network of Greenville, MI (nrn.org) is perhaps the only non-profit in the country that both believed in our students and could coordinate with FEMA and state and local agencies to help assist those families who too often fall through the cracks of traditional relief efforts.<\/p>

Through NRN, more than 500 Royal Oak High School students over the past 10 years have worked to help families after Hurricanes Katrina, Isaac, and Ike, tornadoes in Joplin, Birmingham, and Little Rock, and floods in Louisiana and Kentucky. We have worked on the largest environmental restoration project in human history along the Gulf Coast, planting cypress trees to protect the shoreline; and we have worked alongside the US Army Corps of Engineers in the hot dust of Joplin.<\/p>

\"collageac\"This week, Interact of Royal Oak takes nearly 50 more students to Holly Springs, Mississippi, where a Christmas-time tornado destroyed dozens of homes. The students have raised hundreds of dollars each to spend their winter break working to the limits of their capacity.<\/p>

I do it for what they will learn.\u00a0 As the advisor of this youth Rotary club, I have become interested in efficacy, a student\u2019s ability (and belief in that ability) to affect the world in meaningful ways. It is an idea that speaks to the core of democracy, to compassion , and to individual future success and happiness.<\/p>

Apathy does not spring from boredom but from, I believe, a disbelief that there is anything which can be done.\u00a0 Our votes don\u2019t seem to count, human tragedies on the news appear too vast and distant, and little looks worthy of our time but the time required to earn a diminishing paycheck.<\/p>

I don\u2019t know exactly what each student will learn this week, but that they have volunteered each year is not merely because the work is fun\u2014it is not.\u00a0 They come because they learn something truly important.<\/p>

Over the next week, you can expect to hear from some of these students with updates on our work and their personal reflections on it.\u00a0 Enjoy them as I\u00a0will.<\/p>

\"ag2site1\"<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247,438],"tags":[439,514,477,515],"class_list":["post-833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chizblog","category-service","tag-altfeb","tag-disaster-relief","tag-interact","tag-mississippi"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/02\/boots1.jpg?fit=450%2C237&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1683,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/1683-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":833,"position":0},"title":"Joplin Ahead","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2011 Jun 18","format":false,"excerpt":"The following is a republishing of my blog post from The\u00a0Royal Oak Patch\u00a0on June 18, 2011. Local Voices Interact's trip to Joplin, Missouri, will be a unique and powerful experience for us! On\u00a0Sunday we leave for our fifth disaster relief trip\u00a0with National Relief Network (NRN), it will be the fastest\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ChizBlog"","block_context":{"text":"ChizBlog","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/04\/030209_0334_MeasuringSe5.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1621,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/the-acts-of-man\/","url_meta":{"origin":833,"position":1},"title":"The Acts of Man","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2008 May 26","format":false,"excerpt":"Is there a reason why the situation in Myanmar angers me so?\u00a0\u00a0It is late May, and on May 2 Cyclone Nargis ripped through the country, likely killing over 120,000 people, and 2.5 million require immediate aid.\u00a0\u00a0Only now has the\u00a0government accepted the idea of genuine aid\u00a0into the country, after UN Secretary-General\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ChizBlog"","block_context":{"text":"ChizBlog","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/08\/acts6.jpg?fit=401%2C306&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1686,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/listening-to-joplin\/","url_meta":{"origin":833,"position":2},"title":"Listening to Joplin","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2011 Jun 27","format":false,"excerpt":"The following is a republishing of my blog post on\u00a0The Royal Oak Patch, June 27, 2011 Somewhere through the middle of a week like Joplin I begin to ask myself what I can possibly say to help my students process their experience, to learn from it whatever lessons they most\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ChizBlog"","block_context":{"text":"ChizBlog","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/08\/joplin-e1503247245712.jpg?fit=350%2C234&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":821,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/the-buffers-of-new-orleans\/","url_meta":{"origin":833,"position":3},"title":"The Buffers of New Orleans","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2008 Feb 21","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the last week or so I\u2019ve been thinking about what I wanted to write of New Orleans.\u00a0\u00a0Thirty months following the storm, over 4000 homes are still untouched.\u00a0\u00a0FEMA trailers are toxic. The media has all but quit talking about it.\u00a0\u00a0Brad Pitt builds a few show homes well out of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ChizBlog"","block_context":{"text":"ChizBlog","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/nola-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":827,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/measuring-service\/","url_meta":{"origin":833,"position":4},"title":"Measuring Service","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2009 Mar 2","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been wondering what I would write of Galveston five months after Hurricane Ike. Even now, thousands are without homes, many still without water, and electricity is just now starting to be restored on Bolivar peninsula. And so we took 64 students to help: they cleared debris, assembled roofs, gutted\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ChizBlog"","block_context":{"text":"ChizBlog","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2009\/03\/altfeb.jpg?fit=402%2C225&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2155,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/nola-bound\/","url_meta":{"origin":833,"position":5},"title":"NOLA Bound","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2018 Feb 18","format":false,"excerpt":"What does it require to survive 17 storms in the last 12 years? 21 in the last 20? I hope once again for us to learn from them, to gain some perspective, to help where we can.","rel":"","context":"In "ChizBlog"","block_context":{"text":"ChizBlog","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2009\/03\/altfeb.jpg?fit=402%2C225&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=833"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2084,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833\/revisions\/2084"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}