about this trip, and we had more applicants than we could

take,' said Alysa Rose, the company's general

manager. 'Our employees really related to the plight of

the city and its residents.'

LIKE NEW: Rejuvenation isn't just another word for

rebuilding, revitalizing, repairing and all the other

"re" words that are common in our vocabulary. It

is also a multi-million dollar period lighting company based

in Portland, Ore., that is as committed to doing good in the

community as it is to doing well in business.

And, luckily for New Orleans, this year the company chose

the city that care forgot as the site of its annual

volunteer project.

Just after Thanksgiving, company founder Jim Kelly and 11

of Rejuvenation's staff traveled to town to start a

week of volunteer work arranged by Northwest Medical Teams

Inc., a humanitarian relief nonprofit.

Some in the group -- such as an employee from Bosnia

and another from Vietnam -- at one point in their lives

have been displaced from their own homes and lost

everything, so their sense of connection to the area's

residents was a given.

Rejuvenation underwrote most of the trip, covering travel

expenses and two days of salary, with the employees

contributing vacation or personal days for the balance of

the time.

THE EXPERIENCE: Bedded in tents at night on the grounds of a

local church, the troupe went forth each day on assignments

arranged by Northwest.

"One day we worked at a relief site, serving

food," said Alysa Rose, the company's general

manager. "But most days we worked on houses, gutting

and cleaning them out. Since most of us have a lot of

experience with old houses, we knew what we were doing, and

with 12 of us, t
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