Tulane University - Jambalaya Yearbook (New Orleans, LA)

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First Row: Steven Lee Laura Leight Ann Johnson Ellen Keiser Mike Pottinger Grethchen Harper Second Row: Gary Gucks Dana Rubin Mark Grider Mark Lowell Allison Green Laura O ' Conner Jeff Venesse Karen Landsburg Belinda Fonseca Third Row: Joe Gordon Paul McDonald Sandra Vujnovich Seth Grant Tammy Cross Merril Rueter Cactus Chairperson Sandra Vujnovich exhibits a surprised look after being hit with a pie at Superfest. Cactus Student Volunteers CACTUS, the Community Action Council of Tulane University Students, is a student run orga- nization providing volunteer services to the Tulane and New Orleans Community. There are over 400 students who volunteer for one of the 18 projects and programs. CACTUS, by offering a wide range of projects, caters to the desires of Tulane students while fulfill- ing a need in the community. The projects are grouped into three major divisions, community, campus, and children and schools. The community projects include: the Prison Pro- ject, which involves visiting and tutoring inmates in the Psychiatric Unit of Orleans Parish Prison: Mar- di Gras Coalition, which has students performing as street medics while others man information lines; Volunteer Clearing House and Community Training Center. Children and Schools is the division of CACTUS which supplies tutors, physical education pro- grams, and educational programming for New Orleans children. Kingsley Area Recreation and Education, Saturday Recreation, Project Oppor- tunity, and Childrens Athletic program are some of the programs which CACTUS provides. The Campus Division is a kind of Hodge- Podge of various activities which includes the Blood Drive, Peer Tutoring, Environmental Ac- tion, Consumer Center, and English as a Second Language. These projects have grown in both size and scope over the past few years. Blood Drive was started less than two years ago, and it is now an essential contributor to the New Orleans Blood Bank, and has become part of an effort to insure the entire university community by raising 2500 pints of blood in one year. CACTUS is a unique organization. It provides as much of a service to the volunteers as it does to the community. Members of CACTUS have an oppor- tunity to learn outside of the classroom; New Orleans is an interesting place to learn about. 126

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Mardi Gras Coalition Awaiting the start of Mardi Gras, members rest Victims are aided by Medics at street stations. Sleeping in Tulane Stadium was banned in 1975 Madi Gras visitors — We welcome you to the biggest free show in the world. — quote from a New Orleans information pamphlet put out by Mayor Moon Landrieu and Police Super- intendent Clarence B. Giarrusso. Parades until midnight, dancing, drinking, laughing, painted faces, singing, stripping, stumbling, it may be the biggest show in the world, but those of us who have experienced it know it ' s not free, especially if one spends time in a hospital or in a jail cell. Mardi Gras Coalition, a project of the Community Action Council of Tulane University Students (CACTUS), is an attempt to help make Carnival a safe, enjoyable, and peaceful experience for visitors and natives. Pressures which had been building throughout the 1960 ' s were brought to a head during the Mardi Gras of 1960 when the inadequecies of established programs to provide food, in- formation, housing, legal and medical aid, to some of our city ' s less affluent visitors became painfully obvious. In response, volunteers from a variety of area organizations came together and established the Mardi Gras Coalition, under the auspices of CACTUS. Although CACTUS, the Tulane Law School, and residents of the French Quarter were in on the ground floor of this effort, it was not until after a heavy rainstrom during the Carnnival of 1971 when the Tulane Stadium was opened as a housing source, that large numbers of students became in- volved in MGC. Initially, the Coalition ' s main efforts focused around operat- ing with campus security in their efforts to control the crowd being housed in the Tulane Stadium. Food, first aid, and legal services were provided. 128