Well after a much-needed break, and an interestingly cold January it is time to continue documenting my time here in NOLA. My first volunteer gig of the month was volunteering for the Saints vs Panthers playoff game for 8 hours. Classmates and I worked with the 50/50 raffle crew where their mission is to raise money for college scholarships for those in need. We were all assigned a certain section of the stadium to work, and we sold raffle tickets off to the fans. Interestingly enough their goal was to raise over 115,000 dollars. We ended up selling so many raffle tickets the system shut down, and we ended up at around 140,000 dollars. It was absolutely insane because we had lines going around the entire stadium for fans wanting to buy tickets. I think we could have easily hit 175,000 had we not had the technical difficulty. However, this experience was really great. We got to interact with all types of people ranging from Panthers fans (unfortunately) to new saints fans, to die hards that were dressed up in some crazy costumes. The best part about it though was knowing we raised 70,000 dollars in scholarships for those in need. My next escapade was tree planting with soul NOLA for 6 hours. This was actually a really unique and fun experience because when I moved down here the trees that arch over the roads fascinated me. I think that that is one of my favorite parts of NOLA. These trees we planted will one day be like those we see on the streets like Saint Charles or Fountainbleu where they overarch the roads and make beautiful scenery. It was nice working alongside classmates, and meeting new people all while coming together for a common goal.
Thanks and see you in February,
Pierce Spencer
