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MHS Girls Head to LA,
MS for Spring Break
7 students, 3 FTs use vacation to visit 5 Moose Centers, and to see wrath of Katrina on a firsthand basis
By DARRYL MELLEMA
From left, Mooseheart students and family teachers who traveled to Louisiana and Mississippi were: Traci Steverson (family teacher), Cortney Heston, Taylor Krimm, Arranda Stuart, Ashleigh Foss, Jessica Perry, Kristen Thornburg, Adrianna Tezanos-Pinto, Rebekah Davis (family teacher) and Persephone Bolden (family teacher.)
> When they left Mooseheart on March 23, a vanful of Child City residents and family teachers had no idea what they were going to experience in Louisiana and Mississippi.
All they knew was they wanted to travel to the area torn by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, visit Moose Centers and meet members of the Loyal Order of the Moose and the Women of the Moose.
What they got was a trip of a lifetime, and so did the people in the Lodges and Chapters on the Gulf Coast.
“It was an amazing experience,” Mooseheart senior Adrianna Tezanos-Pinto said. “I know I’ll never be able to experience something like that again. It was nice to meet such loving people. They don’t know you but they cherish you and they love you and they treat you really well. They just give you everything they have.”
Seven Mooseheart girls and three family teachers went on the trip. The Mooseheart students were Tezanos-Pinto, Ashleigh Foss, Cortney Heston, Jessica Perry, Kristen Thornburg, Taylor Krimm and Arranda Stuart. The students were chaperoned by Mooseheart Family Teachers Persephone Bolden, Traci Steverson and Rebekah Davis.
The trip coincided with the students’ spring break during the last week of March.
“We wanted to make it so that the members knew who their sponsorship was going to — so they could put names and faces behind the generosity they were giving,” Mooseheart Family Teacher Persephone Bolden said. The travelers visited visited five Lodges: Slidell 2038, Baton Rouge 1341 and Greater Alexandria 1951 in Louisiana, and D’Iberville 332 and Natchez 1662 in Mississippi. “We really enjoyed having them down here,” said Elaine Lewis, a member of Natchez Chapter 1298. “It gave the people who haven’t had a chance to go to Mooseheart a chance to meet the children, to talk to them and to see where their money goes and to see that they really are helping people.”
Lewis said she has been to Mooseheart a few times, including attendance at Commencement. She said the experience of talking with the students was different and, in many ways, better.
“We all got to meet them in a smaller setting,” Lewis said. “When we go to graduation, there are thousands of peole there. You don’t really get to talk to anybody. We got to see what the kids were like. And the members who had never been to Mooseheart were really impressed.”
The Mooseheart travelers gained from their opportunity to meet face to face with Moose members in a small setting.
“They really love us Mooseheart kids,” Tezanos-Pinto said. “It makes me feel good that people far away who I don’t know who care about me and love me and are willing to give their money to help support me. And now they know what their money’s going to.”
There was a serious side to the trip. Everyone has been aware of the destruction caused in August 2005 by Katrina, and the ongoing efforts of residents on the Gulf Coast to put homes and lives back together again.
“The Lodges in Mississippi and Louisiana were affected by the devastation,” Bolden said. “It was good for the girls to hear from the members’ point of view and to be able to put faces to the devastation they had seen. It made it more real to the girls.” Some areas were hit harder than others. Lewis and the Natchez Lodge were spared the worst effects of the hurricane.
“We were lucky,” Lewis said. “The most we got were power outages.”
Lewis said she can see true spirit in those who suffered greatly from Katrina effects.
“The Lodges there have done a wonderful job keeping their doors open. Even while things were still going on, they kept taking people in. Theirs is the remarkable story.”
The Mooseheart travelers got their own opportunity to see the still apparent scars in New Orleans when they took a ride through the Lower Ninth Ward.
“We drove around and looked at some of the houses,” Tezanos-Pinto said. “There’s still a lot of destruction there. There’s still a lot of rebuilding to do and it’s sad.”
The trip was planned so as to be as safe as possible for the tourists.
“We were told safety might be an issue,” Bolden said. “We were warned where to go, how long to be in there what time of the day to go because we wanted the girls to be safe.”
If people were still struggling, they didn’t show it when the Mooseheart van pulled into town.
“The term ‘Southern Hospitality’ is not used enough,” Bolden said. “The people of Louisiana and Mississippi were just incredible. We weren’t expecting the level of generosity and the loving response that we had.”
And that reception had a lasting impact on the young women of Mooseheart.
“It made them realize they were lucky and privileged to still have a home to go to and to have their possessions intact,” Bolden said.
One thing the tourists had hoped to do while on their trip was some community service work, but that proved impossible in the time available. However, Bolden said contacts were made and, if there are future trips to the area, they could benefit from those efforts.
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