" [The people of New Orleans] are afraid people
are forgetting their story. They feel abandoned. We want to let people know there is so much more to be done there."
~ Dr. Richard Lapchick
NCAS President & Co-Founder
of the Hope For Stanley Alliance
The mission of the Hope For Stanley (HFS) Alliance is to provide people in sports volunteer opportunities in areas affected by natural disasters. Hope For Stanley believes in the ability of sport to be an agent for social change. Individuals associated with Hope For Stanley know of the emotional, financial, and physical impact sport has on those who act as spectators and participants. It is because of this impact that there is great potential for sport to be a social tool used for the betterment of people's lives. By understanding that nothing brings together a community more quickly than tragedy and sport, it is the goal of Hope For Stanley to affectuate change through sport and provide ample volunteer opportunities in areas that have been affected by natural disaster. More specifically, HFS focuses on Hurricane Katrina relief and rebuilding efforts in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, Louisiana.
In December of 2006, ten students from the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program at the University of Central Florida in Orlando gave their Winter Break to go volunteer in New Orleans nearly 14 months after the city was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. Along with Dr. Richard Lapchick, his wife Ann Pasnak, their daughter Emily, and family friends Allyce Najimy and Massachusetts State Representative Smitty Pignatelli, the students began their trip by repairing bicycles at a church in the Lower Ninth Ward. The students soon heard from parishioners about a man named Stanley Stewart who was considering permanently vacating his damaged home.
The UCF students decided to meet Stanley and took it upon themselves to rebuild the Stewart home. More students returned to help the Stewarts during Spring Break in March of 2007 and even more came back over the summer in July of that same year. By that October, Pignatelli was able to round up a construction crew of 25 that donated their time and materials to do plumbing, electrical work, and drywall foundations in the Stewarts’ home. Only a few weeks later a group of students returned to paint the new walls of Stanley’s home. Over two years after the storm and 10 months after UCF had gotten involved, the Stewarts were able to return home.
The students from the original trip were inspired by Stanley and his family and in February, 2007 (with the help of New Orleans City Council President Arnie Fielkow) founded the Hope For Stanley Alliance. To date, more than 700 volunteers have given more than 24,000 hours of service to the city of New Orleans. No other organization based outside of Louisiana has done more.
The organization takes its name from Stanley Stewart who embodies the spirit and optimism of the people of New Orleans. Stanley Stewart is a resident of the Lower Ninth Ward who chose to wait out Hurricane Katrina. After the Industrial Canal was breached, the family was stranded on the second floor of their home for a day and a half before they were rescued by boat and taken to the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. The Stewart family was separated for the better part of a year before they were finally able to return to the Lower Ninth in a FEMA trailer. In 2006 and 2007, as students from the University of Central Florida (UCF) rebuilt his home in 2006 and 2007 while Stanley and his family were confined to a cramped FEMA trailer, he offered words of encouragement and served as an inspiration for the students working on his home. Stanley Stewart still represents the spirit of the Crescent City as even though he was beaten by Katrina, continues to stay strong and believe that the Lower Ninth Ward will be rebuilt. Stanley and his wife Betty attended the UCF graduation ceremonies in 2007 and watched the students who helped them get back into their home walk across the stage. Stanley's story continues to instill hope in all those who have gone to New Orleans to volunteer since 2006 and moves everyone who meets him to believe in what they cannot yet see. CLICK HERE TO SEE SLIDES OF THE REBUILDING OF THE STEWART'S HOME
The DeVos Sport Business Management Program will be in Tuscaloosa, AL during December 2011.
Email us for info about our next trip in August or to organize a trip for your group - we send groups to New Orleans and the surrounding area YEAR ROUND.
Some of the upcoming events for Hope For Stanley Alliance are:
DeVos Sport Business Management trip August 15-19, 2011
If you would like to make a donation to Hope For Stanley Alliance and invest in the future of the people of New Orleans, please send a check payable:
Hope For Stanley Alliance
c/o DeVos Sport Business Management Program
P.O. Box 161400
Orlando, FL 32816-1400
All donations are tax deductible.
We live in a society that is fast paced, enhanced by technology, and increasingly global. In a time when many of the world's issues are a public priority only as long as they stay in the 24 hour news cycle, HFS eBay provides a way for Hope For Stanley a way to raise awareness and funds with help from people all around the world.
Utilizing the nexus of technology and our sports origins, HFS eBay is an online store on eBay selling primarily sports memorabilia as well as other donated items with 100% of the revenues generated from all sales being donated back to Hope For Stanley and invested in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, Louisiana.
Visit our eBay store to bid on an item or feel free to donate to us any items that you believe we could sell online. As always, tell your friends!
GoodSearch.com is a newYahoo-powered search engine that donates half its advertising revenue, about a penny per search, to the charities its users designate. Use it just as you would any search engine, get quality search results from Yahoo, and watch the donations add up!
GoodShop.com is a new online shopping mall which donates up to 37 percent of each purchase to your favorite cause! Hundreds of great stores including Amazon, Target, Gap, Best Buy, ebay, Macy's and Barnes & Noble have teamed up with GoodShop and every time you place an order, youll be supporting your favorite cause.
Just go to h ttp://www.goodsearch.com/ and enter the National Consortium for Academics and Sports as the organization that you want your web searches to support! And of course, be sure to spread the word!
Dr. Richard Lapchick is originally from Yonkers, New York. Human rights activist, pioneer for racial equality, internationally recognized expert on sports issues, scholar and author Richard E. Lapchick is often described as the racial conscience of sport. He was one of 200 personal guest of Nelson Mandela at his inauguration as a result of leading the South African sports boycott from 1975 until Apartheid's end. He brought his commitment to equality and his belief that sport can be an effective instrument of positive social change to University of Central Florida where he accepted an endowed chair in August 2001. He also serves as the President and Founder of the National Consortium for Academics and Sport and is a co-founder of the Hope For Stanley Alliance. In was named one of the nations top five programs by the Wall Street Journal , The New York Times and ESPN The Magazine . In 2009 it was named the #1 MBA program in the nation for volunteer service. Lapchick is a regular columnist for ESPN the Magazine and The Sports Business Journal. He has written 16 books and over 550 articles.
Kara Adams is originally from the Bay Area, California; however moved to Ashburn, Virginia before the start of high school. Adams received a Bachelor of Science in Sport Management from Howard University in Washington DC in May of 2010. She is currently a graduate student in the DeVos Sport Business Management Program at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida. Adams serves as one of two Graduate Coordinators for the Hope For Stanley Alliance and has gone on one volunteer trip to provide relief to the victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans with plans to return in December and March. As a first year graduate student she is enthusiastic about the future and the impact she will have on the program, classmates and the future. Kara's goals are to help people through sports; specifically, to be a Director of Operations for a sports team or in collegiate athletics. She hopes her passion for helping people and sports will rub off on others.
Chris Sarpy was born and raised in Uptown New Orleans. Sarpy received a Master of Accounting and a Bachelor of Science in Management from Tulane University in May 2009. He currently is pursuing his Master of Sports Business Management and MBA as a graduate student in the DeVos Sport Business Management Program at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida. Sarpy serves as one of the Graduate Coordinators for the Hope For Stanley Alliance. He has been employed by Hope For Stanley since the fall of 2010 and upon graduation, hopes to one day work in operations, specializing in capology, for an NFL or NBA franchise.
Suzi Katz- She coordinates the efforts of the NCAS Southeast Region and oversees the outreach portion of the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program at the University of Central Florida. In addition, she helps coordinate portions of the Hope for Stanley Program. She serves as a Staff Coordinator and assists the Coordinators/Graduate Assistants in planning service trips. Katz has created many relationships in the community which has allowed UCFs student-athletes to get involved throughout Orlando. Theyve participated in Special Spectators, The Miracle League, visited patients at Florida Childrens Hospitals, participated in Red Ribbon Week, visited the Salvation Army Women and Childrens Living Center and Orange County Public Schools, and volunteered for Second Harvest Food Pantry, Hands on Orlando and Habitat for Humanity. Since 1997, the NCAS and UCF student-athletes have reached over 40,000 individuals in the community and a record number of student-athletes have been involved.
DR. RICHARD LAPCHICK
KARA ADAMS
CHRISTOPHER SARPY
SUZI KATZ
DEVAN DIGNAN
NAOMI ROBINSON
Like any organization, the strength of Hope For Stanley Alliance is our partnerships. It is been these partners that have been a pivotal part of the difference we continue to make in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. To see a list of our eBay donors please CLICK HERE.
December, 2006 marked the inaugural trip for the Hope For Stanley Alliance. Before the organization even had a name, a group of students from the DeVos Sport Business Management Program decided they wanted to make a difference and help rebuild New Orleans. While there these students saw the damage that Hurricane Katrina had left in her wake, met the people of the Lower Ninth Ward, and were personally inspired by Stanley Stewart and his family. They spent the week gutting the Stewart's house in the Lower Ninth and planting a garden for the family. The lives of these students were forever changed and the Hope For Stanley Alliance was born.
Spring Break 2007 marked the return of the DeVos Program to New Orleans and this time in greater numbers. Fourteen DeVos students along with Program Directors Dr. Richard Lapchick and Dr. C. Keith Harrison spent the week prepping the Stewart residence for the construction of a new roof. In many ways, this trip was an extension of the inaugural trip. Some of the students went to other locations in the Lower Ninth Ward to aid in the effort by cutting grass on vacant lots (to prevent city fines) or by gutting the houses of other residences so that these people too could begin the path to moving back home. During this trip, the efforts of the DeVos Program students and Hope For Stanley were recognized by the New Orleans City Council. By clicking on the top image on the right, a video of this trip can be viewed.
june07article.pdf
In June of 2007, the Executive Board of the National Consortium for Academics and Sport (NCAS) went to New Orleans to volunteer. The group helped assist in the rebuilding of the Stewart residence and other rebuilding and clean-up efforts in the Lower Ninth. NCAS also offered a free day camp for New Orleans youth in which the children had a chance to learn a number of athletic activities including how to make a lay-up, hit a volleyball, and throw a football. Thanks to multiple donations every child was able to walk away from the camp with a football, basketball, ball and glove, volley ball, or soccer ball to call their own. At the conclusion of the trip, the Stewart family threw a barbeque for the volunteers in his yard which has since become a recurring tradition. Stanley explained that, "We always had parties here. This is the first since Katrina."
In October of 2007, Massachusetts State Representative "Smitty" Pignatelli returned to the Lower Ninth Ward after having been a part of the inaugural trip. Between December and October, Pignatelli had asked his constituents to donate to the rebuilding of Stanley and Betty Stewart's home in lieu of campaign donations. Pignatelli also persuaded 25 licensed contractors to donate their time (valued at $15,000 per day for 6 days) and their materials (valued at nearly $50,000) to come to New Orleans and rebuild the Stewarts' home. At the end of the week, all that remained was one last coat of paint on the interior walls. The following weekend, the inaugural group from the DeVos program returned to paint the Stewarts' home. Stanley, Betty, and their children were able to move back home in time to celebrate Thanksgiving in the Lower Ninth.
For many of the co-founders of Hope For Stanley, New Orleans marked their final trip to New Orleans as a group. Dr. Lapchick, his wife Ann, their daughter Emily, and a small group of DeVos students returned to New Orleans to further assist the Stewarts. The Stewarts were back home but there was much work to be done. Students planted a garden for Stanley and Betty and helped with much of the yardwork. They also partnered with Habitat for Humanity in Musicians' Village helping to put up wooden trusses in two houses, shingling one, and installing insulation in another. This focus on other Ninth Ward residents ensured that the scope of HFS's focus extended beyond the Stewarts with the goal being to keep coming back until everyone in the Lower Ninth could return home. Not even a week after the students departed New Orleans, Stanley and Betty came to Orlando to see the original class who had helped rebuild their home walk across the stage at UCF and receive their master's degrees.
During Spring Break in March, 2008, a group of students from the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program at UCF along with the men's and women's track and field teams at Valparaiso University and 11 students from the University of Vermont spent a week doing relief work in the Lower Ninth Ward. The trip began with students working at the Gordon Street Church restoring pews. On the trip, the students met a woman named Brenda Dupre who had lived on Gordon Street and was still displaced two and a half years after the storm. Dupre had received Road Home funding for electrical and plumbing work but her house was nowhere near ready for those workers to come in. The students from UCF, Valparaiso, and Vermont spent the remainder of the week clearing Brenda's yard and gutting her house and doing everything necessary to get Brenda back in her home.
For the second year in a row, the National Consortium for Academics and Sport (NCAS) had a week of service in New Orleans in conjunction with their annual national planning meeting. Seven administrators from the St. Johns University, including two from its athletic department, joined the trip, along with Kansas State sport marketing professor Yun-Oh Whang. Southern Methodist University, the University of South Florida and the University of Central Florida were also represented on the trip. Whang, a former marketing professor at UCF, had his home in Manhattan, KS, destroyed by a tornado on June 11. A little more than one month later, he traveled to New Orleans to help rebuild the homes of Hurricane Katrina victims. The group worked on 6 different worksites in the New Orleans area in conjunction with Project Homecoming. Some of the jobs included drywalling, spackling, insulation installation, painting, and building stairs.
Sixty students, faculty, staff and alumni from the University of Central Floridas DeVos Sport Business Management Program helped paint, hang drywall, mud drywall, install insulation, and move supplies in storage in the Lower Ninth Ward and neighboring St. Bernard Parish in a weeklong effort to aid in the rebuilding of homes in New Orleans. The UCF contingent contributed 1,100 hours of community service equivalent to one person working 40 hours per week for 6 ½ months toward rebuilding homes. The trip was the seventh taken by the DeVos Program and the largest to date. It was also the firs time that a volunteer trip served as the orientation for incoming DeVos graduate students. The volunteer trip encompassed 11 homes that needed repair or were in the rebuilding process. The volunteer trip came to a close with a barbeque at Stanley Stewarts home, for whom Hope For Stanley is named.
Thirty nine students, faculty, alumni, and friends of the University of Central Floridas DeVos Sport Business Management Program helped do mold remediation in homes, paint, mow lawns, move supplies in storage, and contribute greatly to a shoe distribution event in the Lower Ninth Ward and neighboring St. Bernard Parish in a 4 day effort. The UCF contingent contributed 764 hours of service to the city of New Orleans on 4 different worksites. The volunteer group was instrumental in helping Lower Ninth Ward residents during a shoe distribution event in which hundreds of adults and children received free pairs of new and slightly-worn shoes. The event was held at The Lower Ninth Ward Village. The Hope for Stanley group also included George Mason sport management professor Robert Baker and his wife and former NFL player Dave Meggsey.
Fifty students from the University of Central Florida, University at Buffalo and the University of Vermont participated in the Hope for Stanley Foundations 18th volunteer trip to New Orleans. The volunteers renovated three little league and high school baseball fields with the New Orleans Recreational Department and worked on several home renovation projects in the Lower Ninth Ward with the organization Historic Green. The Hope for Stanley contingent contributed 1,360 hours of service to the Greater New Orleans area. The group was responsible for renovating one baseball field at Norman Playground in Algiers, La., and two baseball fields at Joe Brown Park in New Orleans East. The two parks were finished just in time to begin hosting games for local little league and high school teams.Two days were spent working in the Lower Ninth Ward with Historic Green, an organization concentrated on green construction and deconstruction. Volunteers were involved with Historic Greens vision of making the Lower Ninth Ward the nations first carbon-neutral community. They also worked on the home of Ward Mack McClendon, the founder of The Village, a developing community center in the heart of the Lower Ninth Ward.
Thirty-eight volunteers worked on home rebuilding projects at five different homes located across St. Bernard Parish, Uptown New Orleans, and New Orleans East. The volunteer group encompassed staff from the National Consortium for Academics and Sports (NCAS), the Tulane University athletics department, and members from Marvin United Methodist Church in Tyler, TX. Volunteers worked on rebuilding projects involving drywall, mold remediation, flooring, and painting. The group contributed a total of 539 hours of service to New Orleans. As part of its trip, the Hope for Stanley Alliance created a partnership with the St. Bernard Project to rebuild homes in the Lower Ninth Ward. The partnership includes financial and promotional collaboration with the Alliances efforts in the Lower Ninth with the support of the St. Bernard Project. The trip also marked the third consecutive year that the NCAS has held a week of service in New Orleans in conjunction with its annual national planning meeting. Click on the bottom right photo for a video from this trip.
In August, 2009, the DeVos Program at UCF sent 58 students along with the three directors (Dr. Richard Lapchick, Dr. Bill Sutton, and Dr. C. Keith Harrison), and five alumni. Students did a variety of different jobs during the week. Many hung sheet rock, mudded, installed insulation, and did mold remediation. The trip included a tour of the Lower Ninth Ward, meeting with the Stewart Family and Arnie Fielkow, and a visit from employees of the New Orleans Hornets. While working on the different homes, many students had the opportunity to meet the homeowners and understand the impact they were having. One of the groups had the chance to meet a gentlemen named "Mac" who was a leader in his community. In the aftermath of the storm, he had decided to help out his neighbors before himself. This particular group spent the week working on Mac's home to help a man return home who had already helped so many others to do the same.
In December of 2009, a number of members of the DeVos classes of 2010 and 2011 returned to New Orleans to help rebuild the Lower Ninth. Nearly 35 people from the DeVos program as well as friends and family members traveled there for a life-changing week. Many students did work that ranged from hanging sheetrock to installing insulation. Hope was alive in well in New Orleans as the people rallied around the 13-0 New Orleans Saints football team which only served as proof of the healing power of sport that Hope For Stanley stands for. The students, as always, got a chance to visit with the Stewart family and even had the opportunity to take in a New Orleans Hornets game one of the nights they were there.
During Spring Break of 2010, 23 students gave nearly 450 hours of service to the city of New Orleans and the surrounding area. Many of the students returned to worksites that our group had worked on in October. One of the two sites had students hanging sheetrock in a community center. The majority of the students worked on a house in Violet installing insulation and scraping paint on the exterior wood siding. This trip marked only the second time in 24 trips that Dr. Lapchick was unable to join the DeVos group . Being just a week before Mardi Gras and a month after the Saints' Super Bowl win, the city saw the town celebrating "Lombardi Gras" as the team continues to give hope to a city that just like the Saints did, the city of New Orleans can rise from the ashes and truly be great once again.
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