When Carol Allen gets frustrated, her anger prompts her to want to hit something — a pillow, a door or a car steering wheel, whatever's handy.
In 2005, Allen was living in Provence, France, when she heard the news that Hurricane Katrina was destroying her beloved hometown. Every morning, she watched CNN International and "cried her eyes out." She was overcome with sadness and defeat, so she hit the steering wheel of her car one afternoon while she was driving into town to get groceries.
"I was a homesick woman, watching my city and my fellow citizens die and drown," Allen said. "I just hit the steering wheel, and I said, 'Do something!'"
Her act of ferocity led her to two women who introduced her to the Rotary Club of Vaison-La-Romaine in Provence, which included people of all nationalities. Allen had landed in the region after marrying a Frenchman, who she is now divorced from.
After hearing about the news of evacuees in need, volunteers conducted what the French call a "collecte" in 15 villages over a three-day period. Allen says the mayors of every village opened up their city halls to collect items for hurricane victims.
“I just said, ‘Help,’ and everybody jumped," Allen said.
The volunteers in France collected over 550 boxes to be delivered to the school.
After a triage of discarding unacceptable items, Allen panicked. She cold-called FedEx and explained what they were trying to accomplish — and, frankly, how much they had. The company agreed to ship everything free of charge to New Orleans, to which Allen asked for a shipping company to provide boxes.
A fan of the cold call, Allen contacted Grospiron, an international moving and relocation company. The call resulted in a truck delivering free boxes and shipping labels to Allen's home in Provence.
"When we finished packing, we had filled my garage and a neighbor's," Allen wrote in an email.
Allen called a friend at LSU who told her about 100 families living near East Iberville High School in St. Gabriel.
Some of the items the volunteers collected included jeans, a mink coat, toys, new clothes from sporting goods stores, and a giant grey teddy bear that Allen last saw sitting on a sofa in the library at East Iberville High School in St. Gabriel, where about 100 New Orleans families were relocated.
At the time, the principal at East Iberville High School was Lionel Johnson, Jr. Today, he is the the mayor of St. Gabriel.
Around late October, employees with Grospiron loaded up the boxes and delivered them to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, where three FedEx airplane containers were filled and shipped to New Orleans. Once in the States, FedEx delivered the packages to East Iberville Elementary and High Schools.
“I didn’t have a need. I just had such a feeling of hopelessness, helplessness, nothing," Allen said. "That’s basically what I said to these people, ‘What can I do?’ And they took it from there. That’s what it became. Three airplane containers.”
Allen said seeing the distribution of items to the families was life changing.
Also in France at the time was Karen Fawcett, from Washington, D.C. She arrived in France in 1988, and her planned, six-month stay turned into 30 years. She is the original founder and former president of BonjourParis.com, the first English language website about France.
She met Allen in Paris at the Continuing Education Center, and when the Hurricane Katrina efforts began, Fawcett jumped in to help.
"New Orleans was really Carol's home. As much as both of us loved Provence, your home is where you're from," Fawcett said. "Everybody jumped because it was Carol. Carol really engenders all kinds of loyalty."
She noted that the French have a better government-response system to disasters that doesn't require the same kind of charity as the States. Instead, she says that Americans are more philanthropic with grassroots movements and willing to "get their hands dirty."
"When a tragedy happens, Americans are there," she said. "France is a much smaller country in so many ways, and I'm not saying that when there was a terrible flood, that the residents didn't pitch in and take people in. But (helping with Katrina) somehow felt different to me."
On April 4, 2006, Allen hosted a thank you dinner on the terrace of her home in Provence for all the people who assisted in the project to help those affected by Hurricane Katrina.
Today, in her New Orleans apartment, 20 years since the aftermath of Katrina, Allen still gets teary-eyed when she looks at the scrapbook she created about the experience. She has filled the book with items she kept: newspaper article cutouts, photos, flyers, letters and more.
She insisted she was not the leader of the humanitarian operation, only the instigator. She said the volunteers were the true leaders.
"It only takes a spark," Allen said, "to get a candle burning."