For those of us out here in California near the start of the school year there was the amazing story of the people who suffered in the hurricanes and their aftermath in the greater south, with obviously the flooding in New Orleans very disturbing for anyone to come in contact with, even over the TV news.
It turns out there was a "California tie-in" with one of the stories of a family from New Orleans, probably one of tens of thousands of touching family stories of attempted recovery from a life turned upside down during the terrible destruction and flooding that took place there.
Karjuan Williams is the nation's top prep 800 runner, an All-American from last spring's season at St. Augustine HS in New Orleans, with a 1:50.14 recorded this last year, amazingly as just a tenth grader. We had been very impressed in person the previous year, when Karjuan was the USATF JO National Champion over 800 meters in Eugene, Oregon, blazing 47.22 and 1:51.07 to win the Young Men's Division! This past year he won the US Junior Nationals and competed for the US in the Pan Am Junior Championships, placing second in that competition. Nothing could prepare the family for what was to happen to themselves and others right at the start of the 2005 school year after such a successful spring track season!!
As the story below goes into, Nick Sparks, a very successful athlete while an 800 meter runner at Bella Vista HS in Fair Oaks, who was part of a super successful group of runners from the early 1980's at that school eventually became involved with assisting Williams' family. I remember Nick as part of a distance medley group who won our Arcadia Invitational in 1982, with Harold Kuphaldt the anchor of that team. They went on to record a best of 10:08.17 that 1982 year, with Nick only a soph that go-round. As a senior in 1984 Nick recorded a Bella Vista school record 1:52.01 clocking and was the Section Champ and 4th in the State Meet. Nick has gone on to real success as an author, and was a big conributor to the Bella Vista HS All-Weather track fund when that school was finishing their project there a few years back. Nick is now a resident of North Carolina.
As the story below relates, Nick and Karjuan had a brief meeting at the USATF Junior Championships in Carson last summer, with the story that weaved itself into the Williams family ending up in North Carolina told best below by a story that appeared in the New Bern, North Carolina newspaper.
We felt that it did a good job of showing us how tragic the situation in a place like New Orleans was for one family, with we hope everything working out for the group. We found very interesting the California angle to the story, with Nick a Golden Stater who has gone on to bigger and better things making touching moves to assist a family in true need from the disaster in the South late this summer.
Once in a while we are all victims of feeling sorry for ourselves for some minor situation, with most everything becoming quite trivial when you realize how many thousands of stories similar to the one told below have had families jerked totally out of a comfortable existence and life and ended with some unplanned migration or return to total destruction at home. When the situation becomes really settled for Karjuan and the two lap headlines start to roll out of the North Carolina area starting this winter and spring it should be another amazing story of recovery with the assistance of some kind individuals and communities along the way--we live in an amazing world!!
The finish line
October 13,2005
BY Randy Jones
Sun Journal Staff
Eighteen-year-old Karjuan Williams met novelist Nicholas Sparks at the U.S. Track and Field Junior National Championships in Carson, Calif., sometime over the weekend of June 25-26.
The meeting lasted just a few seconds. It was so insignificant at the time; the New Orleans native said "I didn't even remember it."
Flash forward two months and Hurricane Katrina was making landfall on the Gulf Coast of the United States. Eventually the category 4 storm decimated the Williams family's hometown, sending them on an odyssey that has ended with relocation to New Bern that would never have happened without that chance meeting in California.
Williams, who was a student at St. Augustine's High School in New Orleans, is one of the premier high school track and field athletes in the country. He was a national champion in the 800 meters, as well as being a force in the 200, 400 and 1,600-meter relays. As a sophomore in Louisiana last school year, he won state titles in the relay and the 800, setting a state record with a time of 1 minute 50.33 seconds in the latter. He was also named co-Louisiana 5-A track athlete of the year.
These exploits are how he and the rest of the Williams family entered the best-selling novelist's radar.
As a member of the USTAF foundation board of directors, Sparks, a self-confessed track fanatic, was attending the meet in California. Under a tent after an event, Williams and Sparks came together.
"It lasted maybe 10 seconds," Sparks said.
But the young man made an impact that changed the lives of two families. Now, Karjuan, along with his mother Jimmie, and two sisters Shereese, 22, and Minnie, 16, call New Bern their home and call the Sparks family friends.
Storm No. 1
Hurricane Katrina's devastation has been well documented. Hundreds of thousands of Gulf Coast residents have been relocated, have lost most or all of their possessions, and for some, the ultimate fate was death.
For the Williams family, the events of Sunday, Aug. 25 started out as just another hurricane evacuation.
"It was scary, but the people of New Orleans have left because of hurricanes so many times we thought it would be like the rest," Jimmie Williams said.
Minnie Williams, who was attending Grace King High School in Metairie, La., remembered the eerie feel of her neighborhood in River Ridge, a suburb about 10 miles outside of downtown New Orleans. She said it was something she would never forget.
"We left the night before the hurricane," the 16-year-old said. "It hadn't started raining yet. It was just a little drizzle.
"But the skies were black. Everyone was gone. The streets were quiet. There were no cars."
The family got in their truck and evacuated to Lake Charles, La., where Jimmie's sister lived, for a temporary shelter and place to stay. But then the events started unfolding right in front of their eyes on television. And the question of whether or not there would be a home to return to began to creep into their minds.
"I watched it all on TV," Karjaun said. "It was like 'huh?' After watching for a while it sunk in. 'Man, I can't go back to my school. I'm thinking, man, my senior year ain't going to go down. My home might be gone."
The area where the Williams family lived was not flooded. Instead, looters ransacked their apartment, taking what they could and throwing everything else all around. A family friend visited the site and gave them the bad news.
But instead of dwelling on what happened, the family decided to make a new home in Lake Charles.
Storm No. 2
"It was one of the toughest things," Jimmie said of trying to rebuild a life in Lake Charles.
Without a job, and little money, the family relied on the kindness of those in the area. Food from volunteers and churches, clothes from the same. Eventually, the family settled into their new apartment and registered in a local school.
"We had started building the apartment and we just can't go back," Jimmie said. "We'll take the clothes people give us. They gave us emergency food stamps. I'd never taken food stamps before, and it was tough.
"I'd always made too much money. So that was hard. Standing in line for stamps, that was hard. It has hard signing up to live in, what they call, projects. That was hard. I always kept my children in a pretty decent place. Of all my kids I've worked and I've done it, with no complaints. But it was hard asking for help. It still is."
Everything was beginning to seem a bit normal again, Minnie said. She was taking classes, making a few new friends. Losing her belongings back at home wasn't the worst thing she said. That came just two weeks into the new life.
"The worst part was moving to Lake Charles and actually having to leave again because of Rita," said Minnie, who also competes in track and field in the hurdle and jumping events.
Then as Hurricane Rita took aim at the Gulf, it was a comment from a teacher that brought out too much emotion for her to handle.
"I went to class on Friday and my American History teacher was like 'Ya'll brought the hurricane with ya'll, thanks a lot.'
"I started thinking, 'It's true.' It's following us or something."
So for the second time in less than a month, the Williams family hit the road. But this time they had no idea where they were headed. Family and friends were now spread across the country, having also fled their homes.
It was head south - away from the storms.
"We had to re-evacuate," Jimmie said clenching her fists. "We drove and drove. We didn't have much money. We didn't really know where to go."
Eventually the family found themselves in Little Rock, Ark.
A Spark of hope
Back in New Bern, the Sparks family just wanted to help.
"After Hurricane Katrina, my wife and I, like so many others, were going to help, but we wondered what the best way to help was," Sparks said. "We went through Hurricane Floyd here, so we knew that a few years later there were people still living in trailers. That stuff is so terrible. So we decided to put our energy not into the post immediate stress, but rather the stress that sets in a week later when 'Oh my God. We have no house, no job, your school is gone.' Those kinds of things."
So Sparks and his wife, Catherine, brainstormed a bit. First, they knew a family from the area, but they were fine. So thinking back, Sparks remembered the track star he had met earlier in the summer.
"So I put out a search for him," Sparks said.
With phone lines down and Internet communications almost non-existent in the area, finding someone who Sparks barely knew looked like a daunting task.
"It's very difficult to find someone when you don't know the parent's names or have a street address," Sparks said.
But it ended up being a little easier than he first believed. Because of his track exploits, Karjuan's name was well known in the circles of college track and field. Coaches who were recruiting the budding superstar had ways to contact him. Eventually, Sparks got in touch with his high school coach. The coach called the family and finally Sparks spoke with Jimmie.
Karjuan remembered hearing that someone, a Mr. Sparks, wanted to help him and his family. Without a recollection of him, Karjuan's first thoughts weren't about being saved.
"What's the catch?" he said he thought to himself.
"But Nick turned out to be a really good guy. It's worked out great so far. So far, so good," he said smiling.
Minnie said Sparks first helped them get a hotel in Little Rock. With just a little more than $100 to their name at the time, it was a blessing.
"Nicholas had called to see how we were. He said if you need me call me and let me know if he could help," Minnie said. "At first I was hesitant, but later I called him. I said 'I'm glad you said if you need me to call you, because now I need you.' And he was kind enough to say 'OK, I've got ya.'
"And it was like whoosh. A weight was off of me."
A few days later, after another long ride across Interstate 40, the family arrived in New Bern on Sept. 25.
"They got here on a Sunday," Sparks said. "And by Tuesday we had them in a new house."
Soon after, Karjuan and Minnie were enrolled at New Bern High School. Older daughter Shereese came too. She had been a student at the flooded out University of New Orleans. Soon, she will return to college at McNeese State.
What was lost
Jimmie said the worst thing about picking up and leaving without having the chance to pack and plan was what she had to leave behind.
It wasn't the furniture. It wasn't the clothes or other material things. Instead it was the things you can't buy at the local department store or mall.
"I would just like to go back and see what is left," she said last week. "So I could maybe find a trophy. Maybe a picture. Or just a report card. Just something from my past. Something I can hold and see."
She got her wish on Tuesday as she boarded a train back home.
For Karjuan, leaving meant leaving behind his friends. He lost his chance to go through his senior year at school with them. He mentioned homecoming, track meets and just hanging out as things he'd never be able to replace.
But he also lost another special thing - "My '96 Cutlass Supreme, black, two-door. What a beautiful vehicle. ¦ It was my older brother's, but he had given it to me."
The car had been broken into, a window smashed and the steering column broken. Just days before Katrina struck, Williams said he had replaced the window. Having recently earned his driver's license, he'd also almost saved up enough money to get the steering column replaced.
"I was going to have all that fixed and be on the road," he said trailing off.
For Minnie, it's academics that took a hit. She said her book bag was filled with syllabi, notes and books from so many classes, at so many different schools it was nearly impossible for her to keep it all organized.
And as a self-described "very organized person" this was something foreign to her.
"I've got stuff from all over. It's kind of confusing," she said holding back her emotions. "After all this changing of schools, I'll want to try to convince my mom to stay here until I graduate next year. I don't want to move anymore. I don't want to change schools anymore. I just want to get my mind off of things. I know if I go back you'll start reminiscing about stuff. And things will never be the same."
Looking ahead
When Jimmie gets back from Louisiana, her first priority is to find a job. She's had some promising leads, and expects to not have any trouble.
She said the experience has changed her forever.
"I found out things can be totally out of my control. But we are doing. I'm looking for a job because I've got to find one. If I don't, we can't stay. No income right now."
Plus she added, New Bern is a great place to settle down.
"My kids, they are going to finish school here," she said. "And since this is a retirement village, I might as well stay here afterwards."
Minnie said school has gone well so far, even though it's been only two weeks.
"Actually, the people in New Bern make you feel very welcome," she said with a smile. "They make you feel like you are at home. You know you're not, but they are so friendly they make it easier to forget you're not at home."
She added that the people she has met so far also don't do one thing that has aggravated her over the last month or so.
"They don't look at you as if you are a so-called, what the news is calling us, refugees. They don't look at you like that because in all actuality you're not."
With two years left of high school, she also hasn't let the hurricanes change her plans for the future. She said she wants to be a doctor one day.
"My goals are still on my mind," she said. "I want to achieve. I want to go to a level no one has gone before. I want to make my family proud.
"And I don't want the hurricanes, Mother Nature in general, to stop me."
Karjuan, whose brother Joel is an All-American track athlete at Jackson State University, said he's still focused on becoming the best track athlete he can be. Now training with Sparks, who is one of the coaches for local track club Track Eastern Carolina, Karjuan said he is focused and ready to move on.
"I really want to go to a good 800-meter program, but I have to look at what I want to major in too," he said.
"My brother is at Jackson State and he told me you can't just look for a good track program. You've got to find a place where you can do what you want to. Do they have good studies in your major? What about after track?
"You've got to look at the whole thing. Not just the little picture, but the whole thing."
His mother has one goal for her son, who won the 800 meters at the 2005 Nike Indoor Nationals in Washington, D.C. on March 13 and took second in the event at the Outdoor Nationals in Greensboro in June.
"He's going to be in the Olympics one day!" she said sitting up at full attention.
Karjuan said he's wants to major in "a whole bunch of things" in college. Business always attracted him. But so did one other career path - meteorology.
Was this a change brought about by recent life?
"No not really," he said. "Every night in New Orleans I watched the news. I mean always. So you watch the weather people and I'm thinking, 'I want to do this.' You watch them and you see them say 'It's a 50 percent chance of this. It's going to rain. It's going to do this. Tomorrow, it's going to be sunny.' I like that. It looks like a great job.
"And everyone knows you. And it's a pretty good paying job."
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