New Iberia non-profit Envision da Berry is getting help from dozens of teens from out of state this week.
There are around seventy volunteers in town for 6 days with the RISE high school Catholic youth group from Frisco, Texas.
"I hope they get a little wisdom and a little experience, hopefully, they’re ok with getting their hands dirty and hopefully they learn to volunteer back home. In New Iberia, hopefully, people can benefit from this charity and the work we do all year," says Andrew Maddox, a volunteer with the group, who after years of visiting Acadiana, has chosen New Iberia because of all the community projects they can help with.
Envision da Berry is putting the group to work at the Iberia Community Garden.
"They’re doing things from cutting banana trees, weeding the raised beds, planting new seeds in pots. They’re cleaning out our warehouse and storage system and fixing bikes today," says Phanat Xanamane, with Envision da Berry.
The garden feeds the South Hopkins neighborhood and the bikes being repaired will go to children in the area. At a time when temperatures are high and volunteers are few, Envision da Berry is grateful for the extra hands.
"Summertime is probably the worst time with bugs, heat, humidity, we hardly get any volunteers because nobody wants to get heat stroke. So it’s great that we have this big groups of volunteers from Texas to help us get all of the work done," says Xanamane.
