This is a post by Azemina Lucevic, a member of the Leon M. Goldstein HS Action Team in New York.

On its path along the East Coast, Hurricane Sandy was ruthless in her attack. Flooded homes, boats in backyards, power outages… whole towns destroyed. These and memories alike bring grief and mourning to the many faces of New York who haven’t ever seen such a tragedy in their lives. However, this “Frankenstorm”, a name Sandy has surely lived up to, presented us not only with its negative offerings but, as a result of the devastation she had caused, also shined light on the resilience of its victims.

Eager to show Sandy what we’re made of, the students and staff at LMG were quick to take action. These past few days have been a culmination of every student and teacher’s desire to help and their unrelenting efforts to provide for their community. In fact, many of us have taken it upon ourselves to step outside of the school and make direct contributions to heavily affected areas. Doing just that, a group of friends and I rode through the jagged streets of the Rockaways, now mutant from all the debris and pieces of the boardwalk laying around, looking for places to hand out our care packages. This experience was one we would never forget for many of us were dwellers of Zone C. More grateful than ever, we observed the dire condition of the once beautiful beach town that was now made invisible by the matching grey of the debris and wreckage Sandy had left. Nevertheless, what had struck me most was the love that was ever so apparent between neighbors and outsiders alike. People opened their homes if they had power so that others could charge their mobile devices, home-cooked meals were made available to entire communities, tables upon tables of clothing and goods were donated from even those who had little to donate. THIS partnership, this determination, this sense of unanimity left me marveling for days after how we are capable of nearly any feat if such togetherness existed evermore. If only the devotedness to help displayed these past few days did not just exist as a result of people’s losses and devastation.

Having gone through such an experience and the hours of pondering afterward, I became very grateful for my time working with ACE who helped implement such a union — not only between people, but also between people and their environment. I almost even grew a sort of anger for society that has never lived up to its full potential however is very capable of doing so. Hopefully the days of nonstop media coverage about the storm and our very up close experience with it have whittled us in such a way that we have come out a more conscious people… generous with our time and our hard work.