St. Bernard Project rebuilds NOLA homes

(WMAR) - As we get set for the Super Bowl, ABC-2 has paired with the St. Bernard Project, which has been rebuilding homes throughout New Orleans.

Some areas, like the Lower Ninth Ward, have barely started to come back, but slowly the recovery is happening -- with the help of hundreds of volunteers.

Marti Scheel is a retired federal employee who lives in Prince George's County.

"I get a sense of satisfaction. I get to see physical things done that are rewarding to me," she said.

She made her first trip to New Orleans to volunteer one year after Katrina, and she's been coming back ever since.

"it's definitely improved; there's still a lot to do and I don't think we're going to get anything done if we don't start doing it, she said.

At the organization's headquarters, work on dozens of houses is closely monitored.

They finish about 100 homes every year.

The head of the St. Bernard Project, Zack Rosenburg, was an attorney in Washington, DC who moved to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina to try and help.

Now, more than seven years after the storm, the need for volunteers has not diminished.

"We don't think there's Katrina fatigue. We think there's katrina lack of knowledge. When people know who our clients are, they want to help," Rosenburg said.

The St. Bernard Project has 130 clients on its waiting list; they say they get about 10 new requests for help every week.

"We need people to volunteer when they're here," Rosenburg said.  "If folks don't have the time to volunteer we need to show them the amount of work left to do, to sort of you could say, bear witness."