So what draws so many gifted, passionate young people to New Orleans post-Katrina? It could be our rich culture, or maybe it’s their altruism, or perhaps it’s the World Champion New Orleans Saints.
For NOLA transplant Lauren Bierbaum, those things are critical –– but she suspects that Creole Creamery’s Creole cream cheese ice cream was her tipping point.
Her boyfriend, Scott Sherman, whom she met while they both lived in Philadelphia, left to attend Tulane Law School. She visited him in New Orleans often, but they always planned for him to return to Philadelphia after receiving his degree.
“I can’t say I loved New Orleans, but it was a great place to visit,” she says.
Then Katrina blew into town, and things changed. Scott was in his last year, and after relocating, he knew one thing: He wanted to return to New Orleans.
“In his role as a student, he’d been a consumer, and now he wanted to be more; he wanted to be a contributor,” she says.
She struggled with the decision to join him. Then on one of his trips back to Philadelphia, he brought back some Creole Creamery ice cream. It clinched the deal. She moved to New Orleans, arriving the day after the first anniversary of Katrina.
“This is a place that doesn’t grant authenticity easily; you have to earn it,” she says. “I know there are some who might consider me a carpetbagger, but though I didn’t have the same shared experience, I still have a strong desire to be a part of this city’s future.”
Scott now works as an Orleans Parish public defender, and Lauren is the director of research for Greater New Orleans Afterschool Partnership, or GNOAP, an organization that does an amazing job advocating for our children. GNOAP, among many other things, connects youth development programs with the tools, policies and resources they need to succeed.
“We can’t have a vibrant community without systems that support development of our youth,” Lauren says.
One of her current projects is CP3 in the Afterschool Zone Presented by Chase. With support from the Hornets star point guard, Chris Paul, this program creates a campus in the Central City neighborhood and offers free transportation so the youth can effortlessly attend activities –– a crucial detail because New Orleans has many great programs, but it can often be difficult and sometimes dangerous for our youth to find transportation to these opportunities. Providing the infrastructure to help them get there is indeed a very good thing.
Like so many of us, Lauren says her work can be exhausting and demanding, but she knows being in New Orleans is the single best remedy for burnout.
“This is a city that is very explicitly committed to appreciating beauty,” she says. “It believes in creating spaces and moments when your responsibility as a resident is only to appreciate that you are in that space and moment. So you can consistently recharge, and it is in those moments that you remember why you do what you do.”
Shine a Light with Pamela Marquis illuminates the stories of those people who need a little recognition for the many ways they make New Orleans the best place in the world to live.