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New Orleans Saints tackle community service project to help refurbish Trinity Community Center

'It needs a lot of love and I know that the Saints will bring that'

Jun 03, 2025 at 04:58 PM

John DeShazier

Senior Writer

The four buses rolled up and stopped around 10 a.m. Tuesday, and engulfing the street corner alongside Trinity Community Center. And as New Orleans Saints players and staff filed off and immediately began to pool into assigned groups, several neighboring residents began taking pictures with their cell phones.

It wasn't time for meet-and-greet photos but by waiting another 10-15 minutes, they were able to see the Saints really in action.

Specifically, in conjunction with Rebuilding Together New Orleans, the Saints were hands-on partners as they commenced landscaping, painting and assembling furniture in and around the facility, partaking of a team activity during a day break from OTAs.

OTA workouts will continue Wednesday and conclude with the team's ninth practice Thursday, before players report next Monday for their mandatory veteran minicamp.

But the focus Tuesday was service, between organizations seeking to bind the city.

"(There are) 17 wards in New Orleans, and a lot of kids and families are separated by income and race – sort of invisible neighborhood boundaries," said Lowrey Crews, founder and CEO of The 18th Ward, which manages Trinity Community Center. "What we've tried to do since 2019 is use sports to bring kids and families together, from all 17 neighborhoods.

"So regardless of their ability to pay we offer lots of youth sports programs, everything from NFL flag football to swim lessons, and everything in between. We've created about 12,000 opportunities during this past school year, after starting with 40 kids five years ago."

The 18th Ward recently acquired the community center, located in Hollygrove, and it hires high school and college students to help lead the program.

"We offer free after school and summer programs, we introduce kids in the neighborhood to different sports and now they have a chance throughout the week to go visit City Park, or Columbia Park in Gentilly or the University of New Orleans campus and swim in their pool and play on their softball fields," Crews said.

"(Tuesday) is really about bringing the community together to uplift this facility. It hasn't really been touched since Hurricane Katrina, so it needs a lot of love and I know that the Saints will bring that. So we really appreciate this day of service, because our kids and families deserve a beautiful facility and today is going to be a big step in that direction."

The Saints definitely brought it.

Whether it mainly was the rookies outside handling the landscaping duties (filling in dips with sand, overlaying the old driveway with a new mix of gravel and soil, organizing mulch around the base of trees), or mainly was veterans inside supplying the labor for the painting, or a mix of the two groups – with coaches and support staff sprinkled into all three units – assembling furniture on the courts outside, no hand went unoccupied.

"Chances to come together as a team are obviously really valuable to us, we have a ton of fun doing that," Saints Coach Kellen Moore said. "But even better when you reach out to community. This is a special community in our eyes, so any chance we get to do this, we're always going to hop on it.

"We're all in this thing together, at the end of the day. We're are part of this community, we need this community on Sundays and hopefully we can help them along the way as well. So, we feel very fortunate to be able to do this."

Linebacker Demario Davis said the community and city are what make the Saints.

"I love being a Saint, because it's a true semblance of a city breathing the team, a team breathing the city," he said. "You saw that so much but it's moments like this, for us to be able to show how much the community and the city mean to us.

"To be able to come and work with The 18th Ward, something that's so embedded in the community, giving opportunities to underserved communities and kids and youth who otherwise probably wouldn't get chance to participate in certain things. To be able to be here at one of their community centers just means a lot."

Khai Harley

Photos: Saints players, staff join local volunteer project with Rebuilding Together New Orleans

New Orleans Saints players, coaches, and staff teamed up with Rebuilding Together New Orleans and The 18th Ward to help refurbish Trinity Community Center in the Hollygrove neighborhood in New Orleans on Tuesday, June 3, 2025.

New Orleans Saints