Through it all, Philadelphia teacher Kenesta T. Mack brought the same message to her colleagues in the South: For just a minute, look past the brick and mortar. Remember that we, the members of this union, remain the essential building blocks. We are the difference makers, the ones who can join through our union to win better schools and decent, rewarding lives for those in our profession.

It was a message that resonated with many potential members—and for good reason. Mack, a building rep for the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, was clearly walking the walk when she spoke about the type of grass-roots involvement and “count me in” activism that remain the AFT’s engine of growth and progress.

A special education teacher at Philadelphia’s Young Women’s Leadership School, Mack traveled thousands of miles on two trips last summer to help AFT locals build their membership and their union. It began at the end of the 2005-06 school year, when a PFT staff liaison asked Mack: “Would you be interested in organizing this summer?” He explained that it involved traveling to McAllen, where the AFT’s growing local was looking for volunteers from established affiliates who could explain, in their own words, how union involvement had made a difference in their lives. They would describe how the union provided not only such basic benefits as professional liability insurance but also an opportunity to work for the betterment of their schools and their profession.

Because schools in McAllen are state-of-the-art buildings, there are many teachers who aren’t sure why they need a union, Mack recalls. So she asked them to look at the bigger picture. “Once we started to explain what the benefits were, especially how we fight as a union for the things we need in the legislature, they began to know the importance.” Until the organizing drive, these potential members “didn’t realize that [union involvement] was so broad and deep.”

Near the end of her fortnight in McAllen, Mack fielded another request: Would she be willing to continue on to New Orleans and Jefferson Parish, where AFT locals were working hard to help members rebuild their careers, their lives and their communities. She didn’t have to think twice. “We had been hearing how the schools were dismantled [following the storms] and how the teachers and paraprofessionals had no jobs,” Mack says. “I really wanted to go.”

For five days at the end of August, the Philadelphia teacher joined other union activists going door to door in New Orleans and Jefferson, visiting AFT members. It was hard work on many levels, Mack says, particularly when organizers stopped at an address where there was no house to be found. “The 9th Ward was still just destruction upon destruction,” she recalls. “You’d see concrete steps that used to lead up to a house, and nothing was there. At times it made me physically sick.”

But there were also stories of hope, the times when Mack and other AFT volunteers were able to contact members, ask them what assistance they needed, and encourage them to stay connected to their locals. “The people were so open and compassionate. They welcomed us with open arms. So many just wanted to talk, and they truly appreciated someone coming from thousands of miles away just to listen.”

Mack’s New Orleans assignment ended on Aug. 28. She was back in her regular classroom in Philadelphia within two days, energized for the start of the new school year. “There is something about this that is just rewarding—I was hyped up for this school year.”

Union-building activities and calls for volunteers will begin again at the conclusion of the current school year. Mack says she wants to return. “You get such a broad perspective and get to know so many wonderful people you might otherwise never meet” by participating in this union project, Mack says. “It just opens so many doors.”