I lived a proud moment recently when I toured the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity communities in the city’s seventh and ninth wards. The seventh and ninth were among the neighborhoods hit hardest by the death and destruction of the August 2005 Hurricane Katrina.

Two post-Katrina homes in the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity’s ninth ward

In October 2007, two years after Katrina, my agency was called upon by our then-client, outdoor deck manufacturer Trex Company, to help develop and implement a cause marketing campaign to benefit under-served communities in New Orleans. Together, with our New Orleans IPREX public relations agency partner Beuerman Miller Fitzgerald (BMF), we put an initiative together with BMF-client New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity, an organization in the throes of reconstructing the housing and communities to which the mostly impoverished area residents were still hoping to return.

More than 150 Trex executives and staff volunteered to help build houses in the “Musicians Village” section of the Habitat development. In addition, Trex agreed to supply the community with more than $100,000 in low maintenance, high performance, outdoor decking for the community’s centerpiece, the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music, a 17,000 sq. ft. facility that would provide space for performance, education, recording studios, community gatherings, and cultural inspiration.

In 2007, more than 150 Trex Company volunteers put their efforts towards building homes for Habitat for Humanity

Last week, while visiting New Orleans, I jumped at the opportunity to tour the area and see the progressing community. It was inspirational and gratifying to witness the good that came out of our public relations efforts, even if we were only just a small part of the huge Habitat undertaking.

We walked by the houses that were built, in part, by the Trex volunteers including the house on which I worked.

The real reward, however, was my tour of the Marsalis Center for Music. The approachable and communal design was beautiful in its utility. Its exterior and courtyard were completely decked with Trex materials. I was told by the Center’s Executive Director, Michele Jean-Pierre, that New Orleans had a terrible termite problem which the Center was able to avoid because of Trex’s wood-alternative, eco-friendly composite decking. Michele, graciously, praised the work and contributions of Trex and of my agency’s work in helping put it together.

Trex decking in New Orleans’ state-of-the-art Marsalis Center for Music

The tour was emotional for me in being able to see, first-hand, some of the positive effects of my own profession. So often our public relations work is drop-and-move-on to the next thing. While we profess to the long term benefits of what we provide our clients, we rarely track the long term effects.

The Marsalis Center for Music includes an impressive 170-seat performance hall, state-of-the-art lighting and sound, recording studios, computer center, listening library, dance studio and teaching facilities. Each year, more than 200 neighborhood children are instructed in music, dance, academics, and social and cultural responsibility in a safe and positive learning environment. The surrounding community is especially tailored to facilitating an approach of having older musicians mentoring the young. According to the Center’s website, “72 single-family homes, five senior-friendly duplexes, and a toddler park were all built by approximately 70,000 volunteers, donors, sponsors and low-income families.”

Marsalis Center for Music in New Orleans “Musician’s Village” built by Habitat for Humanity after Hurricane Katrina

I saw children in the classroom, hands-on caring and dedicated teachers and executive staff working with great pride in fostering achievement. A gifted sound engineer and teacher at the facility, Daryl Dickerson Ed.D, told me that his objective was – beyond performance – “to help the kids build a skill for longevity” and that the long term career skills were often learned “behind the scenes” of performance. And, of course, highly visible throughout was the handsome Trex decking, now an essential part of the facility that makes these efforts possible.

This kind of initiative is certainly not the only time in which I have seen and participated in public relations implemented for a greater good, but it is another heartwarming and inspirational example for all my fellow practitioners to keep in mind in working day-in and day-out for the good of our respective organizations: our counsel can bring real and palpable benefits to business, communities and families.