This is a love story, between two volunteers and between those volunteers and the people of New Orleans. It began in 2006, a few months after the effects of Hurricane Katrina had devastated New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast. Caliopie moved from New York to volunteer with HandsOn New Orleans for three months. There she met Adam, a Los Angeles actor and director, and together with other volunteers they gutted ruined homes and helped deal with cleanup and mold, eight to 10 hours a day, six days a week. But they wanted to do more, for the people of New Orleans and for the volunteers.

Caliopie and Adam decided to write the story of the volunteers, set it to music, and stage a play, acted by volunteers for the volunteers. They wrote it in four days and persuaded 10 volunteers to rehearse every night for 10 days. The half-hour play was called Tyvek: The Musical. It was the story of a volunteer’s struggle with conflicting feelings about why she was doing what she was doing. It was performed for volunteers and the community, including HandsOn Biloxi, which came from Mississippi to watch.

In spring of 2007, months after they had left New Orleans, Caliopie and Adam returned to the city to be married. Their wedding party was a fundraiser for HandsOn New Orleans. A year later, they had a daughter, Sadie June Walsh.

“HandsOn New Orleans changed my life,” says Caliopie. “I always knew I was going to get so much more out of my work there, but I never imagined where it would lead…I look forward to the day I and the whole family can go back.”