Adonal Foyle didn't play organized basketball until he was 15 years old.

But he took his Hamilton Central High School team to a state title. A few years later, he led Colgate University to a pair of NCAA tournament berths.

Then he was drafted eighth overall by the Golden State Warriors in 1997. There, he played for a team that regularly struggled to break the 20-win threshold.

After just one playoff season in his first 11 years, the 34-year-old Foyle now finds himself on an Orlando Magic team chasing an NBA title.

“We made a vow at the beginning of the season; we wanted a championship,” Foyle said. “Now, we're right where we wanted to be. And it's amazing, because you don't always get that opportunity.”

Foyle knows that better than most.

His Warriors teams never finished above .500 until the 2006-07 season when they played to a 42-40 record and upset the top-seeded Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the playoffs.

They later fell to the Utah Jazz in the Western Conference semifinals.

Tonight, Foyle and the Magic will try to even their NBA finals series with the Los Angeles Lakers at two games apiece (9 p.m., ABC).

Orlando is making its first finals appearance since 1995. The Magic were outplayed in Game 1, and fell just short in overtime of Game 2. They found their shooting touch back home in Game 3 to get back in the series.

“In Game 1, we got caught up a lot in the hype of the situation,” he said. “We forgot the things that got us there. We took a breath, and by the time we exhaled, the game was over.

“We approached the last two games more the way we have to. We just have to remember to not make mistakes and play good defense so we can defend our home court.”

Although, it is unlikely that Foyle will see much – if any – court time tonight. Foyle (who was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies by the Magic earlier this season, released by the Grizzlies and then re-signed by the Magic 10 days later) played in 10 games this season, and has been on the court for all of four minutes in the postseason.

“My role right now is more one of leadership,” he said. “Talking to the guys, I'm more of a mentor. Watching from the bench, it's a completely different game; it's a lot slower, and you see different things.”

His early lack of success notwithstanding, Foyle always has been satisfied with how his career panned out.

“Most kids in the U.S. grow up watching basketball and dreaming of playing in the NBA,” he said. “I didn't have that. I didn't have any expectations. For me, it was a journey of discovery. Everything has been a surprise for me. It's been amazing.”

The 6-foot-10 Foyle grew up on the Island of Canouan in the Grenadines and came to Hamilton by way of Philadelphia, joining up with the Emerald Knights and coach Tom Blackford in his junior year.

Blackford said he began getting calls from Division I coaches and scouts before he even met Foyle.

“When he came to me, physically, he was already a man,” said Blackford, now the head coach at Fayetteville-Manlius. “But I think playing for us helped him a lot. We were just a Class D school, and he was going up against kids that were 6-1 and 6-2, but we would let him do things that a lot of other coaches wouldn't.

“He would lead fast breaks for us, and you would never know where the ball was going to go, but we let him develop as a well-rounded player. He could already stand under the basket and dunk, but he learned how to handle the ball and run the floor.”

After Foyle graduated, he stayed close to home, putting off the likes of Duke and Syracuse for Colgate. By the time he left after his junior season, he was the Raiders' all-time leading rebounder and was second in scoring. In 2002, the school retired his No. 31 jersey.

A lottery pick for the Warriors, he averaged three points and 3.4 blocks his rookie season. Those numbers never got much higher. After 12 seasons, he is averaging 4.1 points and 4.7 rebounds per game.

Blackford believes that coaching philosophies that centered on the other players minimized Foyle's role.

And while that may be true, it doesn't bother Foyle.

“I told (the Orlando coaches) that I'm ready if they need me,” he said. “But I'll help the younger guys. I'll do whatever is needed.”

And that doesn't surprise Blackford one bit.

“That's exactly how he is,” he said. “He's the kind of guy that is willing to sacrifice his own development to help someone else out.”

These days, Foyle is used mostly as a practice partner for all-star center Dwight Howard, who Foyle admits already has far surpassed the talent level of his best years. But he said Howard hasn't let any of the accolades go to his head.

“Dwight's the consummate kid,” he said. “He knows there's a lot at stake, whether it's legacy, money or whatever, but he also knows not to make the game more than it is. Some people become so obsessed with the game, they forget to enjoy the ride.”

Foyle said Howard's attitude has seeped down through a lot of the players on the Magic's very young roster, which has made them more receptive to any advice he might give to them.

“I'd like to think I've had an impact on some of them,” he said. “It's easy to inflate my abilities and think I've done more than I really have, but I'd like to think they've picked up on one or two things I've said over the course of the year.”

As for his future, Foyle is well aware that there are far more NBA games behind him than ahead of him, and although he knows he is nearing the end of his career, he would like to think that he's not there quite yet.

“I'd like to play another year or two,” he said. “I can't go 40 minutes a game, but I think I can still play.”

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Donations to nearly every type of charity faltered in 2008, as contributions declined by 5.7 percent last year after adjustment for inflation, according to the new edition of Giving USA which was released Wednesday morning.

It was the steepest decline in the history of the survey, which has been conducted since 1956. (You can ask questions of the Giving USA authors and veteran fund-raising experts in a live, online discussion at noon Eastern time on Wednesday.)

Americans contributed a total of $307.7-billion to charity last year, Giving USA reports — down from $314.1-billion in 2007. The only other decline nearly as large occurred in 1974, when donations dropped by 5.4 percent.

It could take a long time until giving recovers. Researchers who compile Giving USA said that today's recession most resembles the one in 1974, and it took three years after that downturn ended for philanthropy to return to the same levels of donations as before the economy soured.

Interviews The Chronicle conducted with more than 65 charities suggest that fund raisers are seeing no sign of a recovery yet: Forty of the institutions said giving is on the decline so far, and 21 said donations had decreased by more than 10 percent.

Foundations Hit Hardest

Donors held back most significantly in creating or adding to their own grant-making foundations—a decision that will probably be felt in many years to come because foundations give their money away over a long period of time. Such institutions suffered a 22-percent decline, more than any other kind of organization.

Next hardest hit were social-services groups, which raised 16 percent less last year. A poll of 228 such organizations conducted by Giving USA to accompany the survey found that 54 percent reported an increase in need for their services in 2008. But six in 10 of the groups said contributions and other revenue had dropped so sharply that they had been forced to cut expenses, including by curtailing services or laying off employees.

Religious organizations and umbrella charity campaigns like those run by United Way organizations and Jewish federations were the only ones that saw an increase, but those gains were small—less than 2 percent.

Giving to international-aid organizations dropped by 3.1 percent, while donations to environmental, arts, education, and health organizations all declined by 9 or 10 percent.

Not as Bad as Feared

The decrease in overall giving for 2008, was much less than some experts had expected, because the first half of last year was relatively strong for many charities, said Del Martin, an Atlanta fund-raising consultant who chairs the Giving USA Foundation, which publishes the annual survey,

“The economy didn't really start scaring us so much until the fourth quarter,” she says. The continued economic problems mean “we're going to see declines again next year,” she predicted.

Looking ahead, charity officials say they will be fortunate if contributions simply stagnate, rather than decline, this year. Several months ago, Lutheran World Relief projected a 5-percent rise in unrestricted gifts, which totaled $7.6-million in 2008, for the fiscal year that ends in September.

But “we're probably not going to reach that goal,” says Fran Troxler, the charity's director for mission advancement. “The good news is we're doing about the same as last year. Flat is the new up, right?”

Among other key findings from this year's Giving USA report:

* Individuals donated $229.3-billion last year, a decrease of 6.3 percent. Giving through bequests also dropped: $22.7-billion was contributed through people's wills, a 6.4-percent decline. Altogether, gifts from individuals, including bequests, accounted for 82 percent of all charitable giving in 2008.

* Corporate donations totaled $14.5-billion in 2008, an 8-percent decrease, accounting for 5 percent of all giving.

* Foundation grants decreased only slightly, 0.8 percent. They totaled $41.2-billion. Grants from private, community, and operating foundations made up 13 percent of the total contributed to charity last year.

As a percentage of the country's gross domestic product, charitable giving remains strong. In 2008, philanthropy accounted for 2.2 percent of the gross domestic product—not far off from the 2.3 percent estimated in 2007—a sign, some fund raisers say, that philanthropy's place in the economy has not diminished.

Even so, organizations of all kinds are feeling the effects of the bad economy.

In East Lansing, Mich., the Capital Area United Way fell $630,000 short of a $5.4-million goal in its most recent campaign.

And with General Motors' future uncertain, the campaign faces yet more struggles, because auto workers are its largest source of contributions, donating nearly $700,000 a year to the East Lansing charity's annual drive. Rising unemployment in the region is making it increasingly difficult to raise money, says Teresa Kmetz, president of the Capital Area United Way there.

In response, the group is seeking more corporate sponsors outside the manufacturing industry and working to maintain close contact with donors who give through its on-the-job campaign. To cope with the downturn, some organizations have turned to creative methods to coax more gifts out of their most loyal donors.

Among them is Hamilton College, in New York, where donations have declined by 30 percent so far this year. It sought to spur alumni giving by drawing on a playful rivalry with neighboring Colgate University.

Hamilton organized a contest to see which institution could raise the most from alumni in April and promoted the contest through direct mail and e-mail solicitations, student phonathons, and a dedicated Web site that tracked each institution's progress.

The April contest raised $493,000 from alumni and $54,000 from other donors. More than 1,300 donors gave, a 388-percent increase over the number of donations Hamilton usually collects in April, says Jon Hysell, Hamilton's director of annual giving.

In fact, Hamilton received gifts from more donors during the last two days of the challenge than it had during the whole of April 2008. The competition even prompted gifts from 158 alumni who hadn't made an annual-fund gift in five years and from a handful who had never previously given at all.

Says Mr. Hysell: “It struck me in a difficult environment with daily headlines about a plummeting economy that something that might inspire fun would be helpful.”

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At 6-foot-10 and 270 pounds, he's a bookcase of a man, a fella who orders for two even when he eats alone. Big as he is, though (and healthy, as well) Adonal Foyle has pretty much become only elevator music, an old pair of shoes in the back of the closet, the parsley brushed to the side of the steak.

This NBA postseason has now stretched to 21 games for the Orlando Magic and Foyle, the former Colgate Red Raider who has become Dwight Howard's caddy, has played in just two of them for a total of four minutes.

The Philadelphia 76ers, the Boston Celtics, the Cleveland Cavaliers and now the Los Angeles Lakers have stepped in with this Orlando bunch since these playoffs began way back when ... and across all those encounters Foyle has basically served as the Magic's night watchman.

Because, altogether now . . . every night he sits and watches.

But then, wait. If Adonal is to be believed, he's merely biding his time.

"I think," he said the other day, "the coach is saving me for that special moment when I'll limp out onto the court and bring the guys home to victory."

Yes, of course, this most grounded of athletes was kidding. Foyle, no fool, knows he's 34 and fading like distant tail lights after a dozen NBA campaigns, the last of which -- this one winding down now -- saw him get into merely 10 regular-season contests. He understands that after having earned more than $50 million since leaving Hamilton following his junior year back in 1997 as Colgate's all-time leading rebounder and its No. 2 career scorer, he's all but done.
The Associated Press/Darren HouckIt's been a rare sight this season, but Adonal Foyle has played for the Orlando Magic. And when he's gotten out there on the court, the former Colgate Red Raider has made life uncomfortable for the other side.

Except, that is, for those duties that escape the notice of the statistician.

Adonal, you see, has become a happy mentor. And his willing mentee is Howard, the magnificent Orlando manchild whose 6-11, 265-pound body is the kind of thing that has long inspired sculptors to scurry about for blocks of marble. So, Foyle has a role, even if it won't be much discussed by the TV boys.

"Otis (Smith, the Magic's general manager) liked the idea of having somebody who wouldn't be afraid of Dwight, who's not going to back down from him, who's going to push him to be better," said Foyle. "I play him in practice and he takes my head off all the time. But I like to think that I take his head off a little bit, too.

"I try to be aggressive with him and force him to get things harder. I don't want him to get easy things. I want to make him take good shots, not just shots he can get by bullying me. That's a big part of why they brought me in. Throughout my career, I've never been one to back down from a fight or to take it easy on anybody. So, I approach each practice as a challenge to make Dwight better."

Who out there would dare suggest that Foyle, the Caribbean native who attended Hamilton Central High School before turning down both Jim Boeheim and Mike Krzyzewski to play for Jack Bruen at Colgate, has been anything but successful? With Adonal whispering in his ear and elbowing him in the back, Howard led the league in rebounding (13.8) and the Magic in scoring (20.6), and he's lugged the Orlando club to 71 wins and into the NBA Finals.

And he's only 23, which makes him younger than more than a few sets of skivvies.

"Dwight is just so calm and relaxed," said Foyle. "I mean, he's 20-something and he's already one of the best players on earth. He's a kid. He has fun. Life is entertaining for him. It's like he has no care in the world. I remember when I came into the NBA how I struggled to find my way. But he just has the league by the horns. The game has come so easy for Dwight, and yet, he's learning all the time. You tell him to do something, and he just goes out and does it. It's ridiculous."

Once upon a time, Adonal could claim a smidgen of Howard's story as his own. Not the talent part, certainly, because Foyle, whose hands have too often been skillets, had been destined to be another local fisherman, not a professional American athlete. But how did this island child produce any less wonder?

He'd grown up, after all, without electricity and therefore did his reading at night next to a flickering flame with a donkey nearby. He'd fallen into basketball by an accident of height, was "discovered" at the age of 15 by a couple of Colgate professors who ultimately delivered him to Bruen, and developed into the eighth pick of the 1997 NBA Draft. He'd spent 10 blue-collar campaigns with the Golden State Warriors before landing in Orlando in and around playing a single affair with the Memphis Grizzlies.

If Adonal Foyle, then, doesn't have the best back story in the NBA, it's in the conversation. Moreover, if he doesn't have the broadest vocabulary, it's still enough to turn eyelids into runaway window shades. Oh, and if his eclectic tastes don't impress, his celebrated civic mindedness (Democracy Matters) and bottomless generosity (Kerosene Lamp Foundation) will.

And now, look. This fellow with the modest career per-game averages of 4.7 rebounds and 4.1 points has become a professor of sorts. And while his class has a membership of one, it is a very important one because after LeBron James, Dwight Howard could be the No. 2 basketball property in the world.

And his teacher is Adonal Foyle.

"The great thing about Dwight is that you don't have to work very hard to get him to listen," said Foyle. "I try, in a practical way, to make him do things he otherwise wouldn't want to do. Force him to take a jump shot. Force him to go to his left. Force him to cut in, off the right. Force him to go to his off hand. Force him to do something other than dunk."

And then, Adonal paused.

"The truth is," he said, "Dwight just goes out there and beats me around for two hours of practice. And then I go watch the games."

The truth is, that isn't the truth. Not the whole truth, anyway. And, anyway, there's always the chance that Foyle will be asked by his coach to provide that special moment. And if he delivers in these NBA Finals? If he limps out on the court and brings his guys home to victory? Well, that would be Magic.

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Beetles need a place to live, too!

Birds and beasts have inspired many conservation efforts. But what about a home for bugs? I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet. Dr. Kimberly Russell (Colgate University Class of 1992) is with the American Museum of Natural History. She says that bees, spiders, centipedes and other invertebrates are frequently left out of the effort to preserve natural habitat.

"Its an area that's been somewhat ignored by the general conservation community, for a variety of reasons. One of which just being the showiness of the organisms in general; people care more about warm fuzzies than they do about invertebrates.

But of course the more people study it, the more they realize that these little critters are critically important, biologically, and we really cant afford to ignore them. A lot of people said, well, if you conserve a lot of land, then whats good for the bear is good for the beetle. But when people actually started looking at that in more detail, they realized that actually, you know, there are some issues that are more specific to invertebrates than people realized. They require a certain type of quality habitat. Its not just about space or area. And so, you know, conserving for bears isn't necessarily going to help the beetle. If you don't meet the beetles requirements in that habitat."

Dr. Russell is working on a project that would make the land underneath power lines into a habitat where bees would thrive. She says that this could be one of the solutions to the problem of preserving land for invertebrates. Why not turn areas not previously thought of as valuable into insect-friendly habitats?

"I think that's where this type of thing is going to make the most difference, is actually in very highly developed areas where you just don't have habitat like this for species to exist in. You know, there are lots of areas throughout the country, where you either have forest or you have development and that's your only choices. And so in that situation this could really make a big difference."

Well hear more about power line habitats for bees in future programs. Pulse of the Planet is made possible by the National Science Foundation. I'm Jim Metzner.

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On May 19, Peter Balakian, the Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor of the Humanities-Colgate University, spoke at the offices of Facing History and Ourselves in Brookline on the topic of the latest book he finished editing, Armenian Golgotha: An Eyewitness Account of the Armenian Genocide (Knopf, March 31, 2009).

Armenian Golgotha, long recognized as one of the most important eyewitness accounts of the Armenian Genocide, is the work of Balakians great uncle, Grigoris Vartabed Balakian, who was among the initial group of Armenian intellectuals arrested on April 24, 1915. Unlike most of those arrested, Balakian survived and went on to fulfill his pledge to bear witness to all he had seen and experienced during his four-year ordeal. Aris Sevag and Peter Balakian have now translated the book into English.

Peter Balakian is the author of The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and Americas Response and the memoir The Black Dog of Fate. He is the recipient of many awards, including the Raphael Lemkin Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He holds a Ph.D. in American civilization from Brown University and teaches at Colgate University.

Facing Historys Adam Strong introduced the event, and spoke of the teacher workshops held to facilitate the study of genocide history and human rights. In a few months this room will be filled with teachers in workshops, he said, so that they can go out and change the world.

One of the things that I know about Peter is that hes really interested in getting young people interested in the moral and ethical questions of their lives, said Strong about Balakian, who is a longtime Facing History educator and lecturer. Hes also a member of our Board of Scholars and has built such a solid reputation for us as an educator.

The reach of Facing Historys Armenian Genocide education curriculums has grown, he said. Facing History is now taught in every Boston high school and the Armenian Genocide is now taught as a Facing History elective course in schools and curriculums that range from the Memphis school system to the Chicago public school systemand even to parts of the U.K. and Northern Ireland.

Peter Balakians daughter, Sophia Balakian, a Facing History international coordinator, said of Armenian Golgotha, This book is a part of my own history and legacy. She quoted Bishop Desmond Tutu, who once said, The past has a way of coming back to you. It doesnt go away quietly.

Peter Balakian then took the podium, noting, Its a distinguished moment to be introduced by my daughter. Its not an exaggeration to say that I could just pass the podium to her tonight.

He continued, Facing History has been brilliant in organizing my entire book tour and over the years has really become an extension of my family. I think this is a very beautiful moment for the Armenian community to be in symphony with Facing History.

Balakian spoke of Facing Historys uniqueness and value of freedom of speech in its curriculums, saying, In the U.K., curriculums are not very flexible, and the same goes for schools Ive visited from Australia, to Italy, to Greece. When I think of American democracy at its best, it is in the classroom that we do our best soul-searching and self-evaluation, and Facing History is a great American brainchild.

Turning to speak of the Armenian Genocide, Balakian said of its legacy that On the demonic side, we think of Adolf Hitlers statement [in 1938, Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?] that reminds us that memory is always a historical moral issue.

He continued, But on the angelic side we have the career of Raphael Lemkin. It was Lemkin who first used the term Armenian Genocide on television in 1949. That is one way to think of the reach paradigthmacally into modernity.

Speaking of Armenian Golgotha, Balakian recounted of his great-uncle that Bishop Balakian went on to prep school with my grandfather to Etchmiadzin and then they both went to Germany for university. He was actually a writer, so Armenian Golgotha was not a homemade memoir as many others are. This man wrote 10 books in his life but wrote Armenian Golgotha feverishly from 1918-21 while in Manchester in the north of England.

The first-published version of Armenian Golgotha was not available to the public until 1959, Balakian said, and only then to a small circle of people. But [Vahakn N.] Dadrian has said that it was this book that solidified his desire to study history. Its a book of many voicesmore than just the linear narrators voice. Bishop Balakian is a very good listener along the death marches.

He explained, Anyone that sees an Armenian priest is always shocked because the intelligensia were killed first. You hear the voices, too, of the Turkish perpetrators to my uncle because theyre sure that hell be dead in a matter of weeks or months. That gives insight into the perpetrator culture.

Balakian added, We also hear the voices of righteous Turks in the provincial villages, mayors and imams and muhtars, that hate what the Young Turks are doing and are constantly warning my great uncle to escape.

He spoke of his great-uncles ability to blend into his surroundings as a survival mechanism. My great uncles knowledge of German helped him navigate that world. This polyphonic of voices covers a large diarama of experiences.He goes by many disguises in the book: Hes a German soldier, a Greek vineyard worker, and at one point he changes his name to Garabedian.

Balakian said of Bishop Balakians narrative voice and writing style in the memoir that we also face a narrator that has a critical and analyitical mind trying to understand the dynamics of why all this is happening. He is also a public intellectual that believes in the process of critical analysis and is also very hard on the Armenian political and religious leaders of the time.

He continued, I think as you experience the Armenian Genocide reading Armenian Golgotha, you experience the collective eradification of the Armenian civilization. In the domain of collective destruction, you also experience the destruction of the Armenian belief system, in this case, Christianity.

Of one particularly emotional instance in the memoir, Balakian stated, When these Islamicized Armenians see my father in these Dante-esque surroundings, many fall to their knees in anguish at the hem of his clerical garment and in some cases he performs Holy Communion in situations so surreal that they extend into the realm of magical realism.

In part, Armenian Golgotha was a way to bury the dead, he said, in the same way that Hegel asserts that the first act of civilization is the ritual of burial.

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Rita Williams, owner of Williams' Cafe on Hopkins Street, sat at a table in her restaurant Saturday morning with an incredulous look on her face. In a matter of hours, her business and livelihood had received a colorful facelift, trading its dilapidated look for an eye-catching green.

“This building has gone down so much and needed help so badly,” Williams said, her gaze wandering toward a group of passers-by who dropped in to check out her new place. “But it's much better now. It's a big change.”

With a wide smile, she added: “I'm so glad, I don't know what to do.”

To thank was a group of about two dozen college students from northern universities who spent three days in New Iberia freshening things up not only around the cafe but at two houses in the West End. The students, an energized mix of sociology and anthropology majors from Colgate University in New York and Wake Forest University in North Carolina, are completing a course that deals with socioeconomic issues in the Deep South.

New Iberia was just one stop along the way. The group was invited to lend a hand in the West End revitalization by Southern Mutual Help Association, said Judy Herring, the organization's director of family and community development.

Herring said Colgate students began coming to New Iberia after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005.

“Now, they said ‘What's next?',” Herring said. “And we said, ‘The revitalization.' ”

At Williams' Cafe, the volunteers pulled weeds and vines growing on all sides of the building. They caulked cracks and completely re-painted it, too, even adding a fresh coat to a smaller building adjacent to the cafe used for storage.

While Williams said she could not thank the volunteers enough for their efforts, she started by rewarding them with some barbecue from her kitchen.

Meanwhile, others painted a house on La-Salle Street about three blocks away.

While the students worked up a sweat and stained their clothes with paint, they also were required to complete homework assignments during the project. In one assignment, the students examined im-migration in New Iberia for a presentation.

“It's really interesting,” said Angela Hat-tery, professor of sociology at Wake Forest. “Many of these kids had never been in the Deep South before.”

Cristina Smith of Maryland, a senior at Colgate, said she enjoyed her time in New Iberia, but added it was a bit too warm for her liking.

“They told us we lucked out though,” she said. “I guess it could have been even hotter.”

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Volunteers from two out-of-state colleges have descended on New Iberia to help rehabilitate properties on the city's West End.

The once dull and dingy façade of Williams' Café, an eatery in New Iberia's West End, has been transformed into a bright “Gilded Pesto.”

A home on South LaSalle Street now also boasts a fresh coat of paint.

An overgrown lot on Robertson Street has been cleared, bringing forth a landscape that is now accessible and ripe for possibilities.

Angie Hattery and Earl Smith, both professors at Wake Forest University, arrived Wednesday in New Iberia with 19 students: 13 from Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y., and six from Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, N.C.

The volunteers quickly fell to work Thursday. They will continue through today before packing up and leaving Sunday.

The students presence here is part of a class examining issues in the Deep South.

Smith stressed that the class is not a civil-rights tour, although important events are covered.

“Our concern is to try to get students to understand power inequities and, obviously, poverty,” Smith said.

But instead of just learning at a distance, these students are afforded an opportunity to give back to the communities they visit, Hattery said.

The class was invited down by Southern Mutual Help Association, a nonprofit group working with the city on a plan to redevelop about 700 acres on the West End.

While they were clearing the overgrown lot, Hattery said, several neighbors approached them.

“The neighbors were thrilled, and a lot of people in the neighborhood seem to be happy that the house is going to be rehabbed,” she said.

Bucket Joseph owns one of the homes on Robertson Street. He is an active community member who has been instrumental in helping clean up the West End.

City Councilman Raymond “Shoe-Do” Lewis, who represents a portion of the West End, called Joseph the “Mayor of Hopkins Street.”

He said earlier efforts by Joseph several others, including himself, laid the foundation for what's happening today.

He said residents are taking pride in their community again, and this is making the city's and SMHA's efforts easier.

Joseph's son and daughter-in-law live in the 100-year-old home that is slated for rehabilitation. He has already painted portions of the home bright blue. Volunteers plan to help him fix his garage, he said.

“This is going to be the best block there is in District 5,” Joseph said.

Judy Herring, who works with SMHA and serves as president of nonprofit Rebuild Iberia, said 32 people have been on three sites all week.

While the city continued installing new sidewalks along Hopkins Street, as part of the city's beautification plan, volunteers have labored throughout the area.

It makes it a true community development, Herring said.

“It's so energizing because it's starting the ripple effect,” Herring said.

Jane Lee, 21, a student at Colgate, stood perched on a ladder with a paintbrush in her hand outside a home on South LaSalle Street.

It was the first time she had ever really painted an entire home, she said.

“I love that we're getting a chance to donate to the community that we're seeing and learning about,” she said.

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