[StBernard] Vt. youths off to ease suffering in Big Easy

[Westley Annis]

Vt. youths off to ease suffering in Big Easy

By Sally Pollak
Free Press Staff Writer

January 3, 2007
The van is packed with bread, clementines, cereal, sleeping bags -- and nine
helpful and hopeful Vermonters.

It left a Pearl Street parking lot Tuesday morning, bound for New Orleans.
Its occupants include six young men and women, ages 18 to 20, who use the
services of Spectrum Youth and Family Services, a social service agency that
serves young people in a variety of ways -- from housing in a 12-bed shelter
to job development to substance abuse counseling. 

The Spectrum youths are traveling with three staff members on a 10-day trip.
The group will spend five days volunteering in New Orleans, where their work
will focus on clearing out and cleaning up homes wrecked by Hurricane
Katrina, preparing the structures for rebuilding. They'll stay in an
elementary school in Chalmette, La. 

For the young people, it's a welcome chance to help others, they said. The
youth have experienced hard times themselves, several said. With the
relative calm and consistency of their current situations, they recognize
and appreciate the chance to assist people who are experiencing difficult
times. 

"I've been through a lot," said Joshua Hall, 20, who works at Wendy's in
Essex Junction. "I lost my mom a few months ago. I have a roof over my head,
and I have a job. So why not give back to people who need me?" He arranged
to take time off work to make the trip. 

Samantha Dorhn, 20, grew up in Essex Junction and lives in the Spectrum
shelter. The trip to New Orleans takes her back to a plan she had at 12 --
one that wasn't realized. 

She and her mother had wanted to go with a church group to Honduras for
relief work. But the trip cost more than they could afford so she was unable
to go, Dorhn said. 

"It feels like now I have a chance to do that," she said. "It's not the same
place, but it's the same kind of work. I've wanted to be able to help people
who have unfortunate things happen to them. You know you're going to make a
difference when you're done, and that's a really good feeling." 

Spectrum officials said that numerous businesses and groups helped with
fund-raising and other gift-giving to make the trip possible. Perhaps the
most unlikely source of money, about $2,000, came from women in a water
aerobics class in Maryland. The class happens to include the mother of a
Spectrum staff member, Patrick DeLeon, 29, who helped organize the trip. 

Other contributors include Healthy Living, a grocery store in South
Burlington that provided food for the trip. Thrifty Car Rental on Williston
Road gave the group an excellent rental deal and supplied a van with only
400 miles on it, according to Spectrum staffer Brian Plisko. 

"I like the open road," he said, staring into a van in which it was hard to
envision squeezing nine people. (The driver's seat was looking awfully
roomy.) He called it a "beautiful process" that led to the open road before
him and the others. Enough praise could not be given to the young people who
committed themselves to the trip, Plisko, 25, said. 

One of those people, Samantha Jo LaBerge, has done her share of traveling
for an 18-year-old. Her childhood was spent picking up and moving on, with
stops in New Jersey, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. She
now lives in Winooski with her aunt. 

"I was always in the car," LaBerge said. "Always going somewhere."

LaBerge said she's one credit shy of graduating from Burlington High School
and plans to complete her degree when she returns. But now is the time to
help other people. 

"I haven't helped out the community a lot cause I've always struggled to get
myself straight," she said. "This is a great time to help -- because I'm
good." 

Tuesday's send-off included encouraging words from Mayor Bob Kiss, who
praised the efforts of the young people and reminded them of Burlington's
relationship with the Gulf Coast and its sister city, Moss Point, Miss. 

"I know that working together we can build a better world and that's what
this is all about," Kiss said. "I wish there was room for one more."

A peek in the van made it clear the mayor would have to sit this one out. 

Contact Sally Pollak at spollak at bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com or 660-1859.