Aw man! I am beyond nervous for this trip to New Orleans! My name is Jason Miles, a freshman at The College of New Jersey, and a member of the Bonner Scholars. With this being my first chance to go on a trip without my family I am very nervous if I will be able to take care of myself, but at the same time I am very excited because I have a chance to directly help people who are in great need. Before going on this trip, the Bonner upperclassmen held meetings explaining why we are going and what we are going for. On August 29^th, 2005 Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast of the United States, and destroyed areas such as New Orleans, Louisiana. What made the Hurricane so dangerous was that residents were warned to leave their homes, but were not capable of relocating or simply did not want to relocate. Thus, once the Hurricane touched ground many lives were taken because people were in the vicinity. In the case of the homes that were destroyed, nothing could be done to prevent it, so rebuilding would have to be done regardless.

            What strikes me so hard is after 10 years of it happening, why are people still rebuilding. But after a little research, I came across a name Mark Skousen. He claimed, “Fraud is common when you give away billions. Fraud related to Hurricane Katrina spending is estimated to top $2 billion. In addition, debit cards provided to hurricane victims were used to pay for Caribbean vacations, NFL tickets, Dom Perignon champagne, 'Girls Gone Wild' videos, and at least one sex change operation.” I want readers to not be offended about his comment, but after searching why people still need to go rebuild was because there were some survivors who spent their money in the wrong ways and thus 10 years later people still have to rebuild. This does not bother me and probably will not bother other Bonner Scholars. We all love doing service and giving back to our community. We love seeing people smile, and building relationships. We all love the feeling of knowing we are doing great things. With that being said, I am super pumped to go on this trip to New Orleans with my peers, and help some amazing people and hear some touching stories.