A volunteer group of 20 students and employees from Simpson College will spend their spring break traveling to the hurricane-stricken city of New Orleans to help Hurricane Katrina survivors rebuild their damaged homes. 

The volunteer team from Simpson, which will travel to New Orleans on March 12-18, is one of more than 82 groups that are scheduled to contribute more than 2,600 volunteers to Operation Helping Hands, a relief effort of Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans where teams of 10 to 15 volunteers commit to short-term service projects over the next six months. Walter Lain, Simpson's assistant dean of multicultural and international students, learned about Operation Helping Hands and offered the program as an alternative to a spring break trip for students. 

Project efforts focus on residence and neighborhood cleanup for the disabled, elderly and those without the financial means to reoccupy their homes. The volunteers will remove appliances, furniture and other household goods from homes as well as damaged walls, ceilings, floors and wiring. Once a home is cleared, the team will spray the residence with a sanitizing solution to kill bacteria and mold.

An estimated 92,000 houses in New Orleans and 200,000 houses metro-wide were severely damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Areas of the city are still without gas and power and thousands of homeowners are displaced until help arrives.