By Rod Hansen
Staff Writer

Anja Wallace of Goffstown helps out at a building project for Bike & Build in Boise, Idaho. Wallace left for New Orleans to help rebuild in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. (Courtesy Photo)

In December 2004, Anja Wallace of Goffstown stayed with friends in New Orleans.

Wallace returned to the Crescent City on Jan. 2 – a little more than a year after her first visit, and five months after the city was shattered by Hurricane Katrina, one of the worst natural disasters in this country's history.

"It's probably going to be strange to see New Orleans after Katrina," said Wallace, 23. "It was just a regular city when we stayed there last December, but of course Katrina has changed all that."

Wallace and more than 20 other volunteers from across the country left for New Orleans on Jan. 2. The group of young volunteers will assist in Katrina cleanup efforts by helping construct a community center and an apartment building in this relief effort, called the Jan Plan.

Wallace and Pelham resident Erin Kinneen are volunteering in New Orleans on behalf of Bike & Build, a Brooklyn, N.Y., nonprofit that produces longdistance fundraising events to benefit charitable causes. The two women, both 2004 Boston University graduates, bicycled across the country on separate Bike & Build volunteer missions the summer after they graduated.

When news of Katrina struck in September, Kinneen immediately thought of organizing a relief project with the friends she'd made on her Bike & Build adventure.

Kinneen recalled hearing about the devastating effects of Katrina while doing a physical therapy internship in Colorado Springs, Colo.

"I couldn't imagine being a resident of New Orleans and having something like that happen to the place where I lived," Kinneen said.

Kinneen began an e-mail chain to organize a relief project. The number of Bike & Build alumni participating in the project has now grown to 28, Kinneen said.

Katrina hit close to home for one of the Bike & Build volunteers, Wallace said.

New Orleans resident Stephanie Schwartzmann and Wallace met on the cross-country Bike & Build mission of 2004. The pair's similar riding styles led to a natural friendship, Wallace said.

"Stephanie and I rode together every day just because we had the same riding pace, and we got to be good friends," Wallace recalled.

Some of the volunteers will be staying with Schwartzmann during the rebuilding project.

Although Schwartzmann's apartment did suffer some damage due to Katrina, Wallace said the residence is still habitable.

Schwartzmann said the effects of Katrina have been hard, but she looks forward to seeing the rebuilding efforts progress.

"It's sad to see my neighborhood in ruins, but it makes me happy to hear hammers pounding each day," Schwartzmann said in a press release. "I'm looking forward to reuniting with friends from Bike & Build and helping people in my neighborhood to build safe, affordable homes."

The volunteers will work through Volunteers of America for the New Orleans project.

All volunteers were asked to raise at least $300 for the cause, according to a press release. They raised a total of more than $7,000 to donate to the organization, the release said.

To find out more about Bike & Build, visit www.bikeandbuild.org. Information about Volunteers of America is available at www.voa.org.