I was in my first semester as a news editor at Michigan State University’s student newspaper when Katrina came ashore. The semester had just started, and we suddenly had to decide how best to document this natural disaster. National storm coverage dominated the front page for weeks, supplemented by local reaction pieces and student volunteer efforts (as many as we could find). It was the closest I got to covering the storm.

Until now. More »

To see the First Baptist Church of Chalmette, La., is to see a work in progress.

Traverse City Christian School students and parent volunteers stood on scaffolding Monday as they prepared the exterior walls for siding. Inside, wood-frame walls are in various stages of production, with drywall already going up on some of them. Volunteers could paint as early as Tuesday, one parent said. And the building’s restrooms soon will have plumbing. More »

Record-Eagle reporter Lindsay VanHulle and photographer Doug Tesner are spending the week with students from Traverse City Christian School as they help rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. The students’ main project is to assist with a Baptist church in Chalmette, La., about seven miles from downtown New Orleans and east of the city’s hard-hit Ninth Ward.

There wasn’t much room to stretch out aboard the charter buses carrying us down to New Orleans, especially when it was time to sleep, so students got creative.

Just ask Andy Tuck. More »