wfn.org | New Orleans Shops, Restaurants Get Boost from ELCA Youth Gathering

[<NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

Title: New Orleans Shops, Restaurants Get Boost from ELCA Youth Gathering
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

>July 25, 2009  

New Orleans Shops, Restaurants Get Boost from ELCA Youth Gathering
09-163-CD*

NEW ORLEANS (ELCA) -- The end of July usually isn't very busy for
Mulate's, a Cajun restaurant across from the Ernest N. Morial Convention
Center.  The 2009 Youth Gathering of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America (ELCA) has changed that.

"If they weren't here, we would be really slow," said Mike Phillips,
a manager at the restaurant.

Some 37,000 Lutheran teenagers, adult leaders and other volunteers
are here July 22-26. "Jesus Justice Jazz" is the theme of activities at
the convention center and the Louisiana Superdome.  Participants are
fanning out across the area to work beside the people of New Orleans in
nearly 200 community service projects.

"They're helping the city," said Phillips, who has been working at
Mulate's on and off since 1997.

The popular Cajun restaurant has been across from the convention
center since 1990.  The restaurant suffered minor damage from Hurricane
Katrina in 2005, but vandals tore apart the building causing more than $1
million in damage, Phillips said.  It took six months for repairs before
Mulates opened again.

New Orleans' convention business has suffered since the storm hit.
The Youth Gathering is the largest convention in the city since Katrina.
The Lutheran youth have been out in force spending money, said Dina
Carazo, who works at NOLA Tees in the New Orleans Riverwalk Marketplace.

The store depends on tourists, conventions and cruises to make
money, she said, adding since Katrina, business has been much slower.

"It's still good," she said, "But it isn't excellent like it was
before (Hurricane Katrina)."

Carazo is surprised that the youth are spending so much money.  The
store hadn't expected a large amount of revenue from the teens.  So far,
they have spent more in her shop than the Microsoft Corporation-World
Partner Conference July 13-16, she said.

Carazo and Phillips have both been impressed by the teenagers'
behavior.

"They are really nice," said Victoria Guillote, a hostess at
Mulate's. "They like to talk and ask a lot of questions."

"You wish adults behaved like this," Phillips added.

>---

Information about the 2009 ELCA Youth Gathering is at
http://www.ELCA.org/gathering on the ELCA Web site.  Information on
Mulates is at http://www.mulates.com/ on the Web.  The Riverwalk
Marketplace is at http://www.riverwalkmarketplace.com/html/ on the Web.

* Carrie L. Draeger is a senior communication major with a concentration
in journalism at Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Wash. This summer
she is an intern with the ELCA News Service.

For information contact:

John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news