On a whim, after stopping at a levee, a car of college kids volunteering in NOLA stopped at a small store in the Lower 9th Ward on the recommendation of a friend of Alex’s. That store, Burnell’s, we would find out was the only store in the entire ward, and it would change our lives.
The Lower Ninth Ward Market
Burnell Cotlon introduced himself to us, and we quickly learned that we were in the presence of a true hero. He began the store after Hurricane Katrina and built the place with the many shelves with his bare hands, while sleeping on a bench in the back room. He told us stories of meeting celebrities who had heard of his work, of his labor after the hurricane, and of all the people he served daily. This man uplifts his community with the store, which also serves as a barber shop and a laundromat. He proves that heroes still exist.
Group Reaction
All of us had never heard of Burnell, and even though he has been recognized by celebrities such as Ellen and Justin Timberlake, it gave us both hope and sorrow to find this man that we had never heard of. We fell in love with his tales and his authenticity but felt that it was sad that the rest of the world may never hear of his work. We wish that the world would listen to these stories.
Alex’s Reaction
Today was truly an amazing day. The day was seeming to wind down after we got to visit the levee and I a message from one of my friends to visit a place called Burnell. By the time I suggested the idea we had already crossed the bridge and were on our way back to our home. Eventually a judgement call was made and we turned around to visit this random store that had almost no significance to us. Before you know it we were on a tour of this man’s restaurant named Burnell’s. We would soon find out this how this store was built by one man who literally created this business with his own hands. He has all the support he would need and the one person who he need the most and that was his mom. He worked out of a small window with his very small grocery store that would turn out to be and still is the one and only store on the lower 9th ward. He got recognition from many different celebrities and even had a movie made with stars from Hollywood in his very own store. One of the few things I’ll always remember about this was that he was doing all of this because it was the right thing to do.
-Alex Baguio, Ashley Herrera, Marissa Owen, Rowan Bond