When NFL quarterback Danny Wuerffel first visited the city’s lower Ninth Ward, he was playing ball for the Saints. He’d read a brochure about Desire Street Ministries, an organization ministering to the poor in Jesus’ name, and was moved enough to arrange a meeting with its founder Reverend Mo Leverett. That was in 1997, and his first impression lingers to this day. “I saw dilapidated buildings that should have been condemned,” he recalls. “I saw a little girl carrying a doll, walking into one of them, and I realized that people were living there. I was angry. I was sad. I knew I needed to do something to make a difference.”

At first, Wuerffel helped the reverend with recreational activities and Bible studies for at-risk youth. Leverett and his wife had moved into the Desire neighborhood and founded DSM in 1990, a time when the Desire housing project was ranked the worst in the entire United States. Leverett had a vision to revitalize the district through spiritual and community development, and he integrated slowly by volunteering his services as a football coach in the local high school. That gave him inroads with many young people, whom he invited to his home for Bible study, fellowship, and food. “It was the food that drew them there at first,” Leverett recalls. “But soon hundreds of kids began showing up to learn.”

By 1999, his Bible study turned into a major community event. With the prayers and support of his family and friends behind him, Leverett bought a 36,000-foot building within walking distance of the high school and housing project. He named the facility Desire Street Ministries and claimed a piece of Desire for the Lord. Today his program includes a boys’ academy that educates and mentors nearly two hundred 7th to 12th grade youths.

After seven years of volunteer work with Leverett’s ministry, Wuerffel said goodbye to professional football and joined the DSM staff full time as director of development and a coach for their athletic program. “I love what I do. I love the kids. I love our staff,” says the 1996 Heisman Trophy winner from Florida. “I love . . . investing my life in something that, from the way I read the Scriptures, is important to God: ministering to poor and needy. I really believe that if you look through the Bible, God has a particular interest in how his people love and serve the poor, and this is a great opportunity for me.”

Weurffel has seen God transform many lives through the ministry. There’s Kedrick Levy, a 31-year-old who met “ Coach Mo” when he was just 16. At that time, the gun-toting teen had stolen more than 200 cars, and was a bona fide drug dealer. Today Kedrick is an assistant pastor. He’s married and has 4 kids. When he isn’t teaching Bible lessons, he coaches football and mentors kids in the neighborhood.

“I saw dilapidated buildings that should have been condemned,” he recalls.
“I saw a little girl carrying a doll, walking into one of them, and I realized that people were living there. I was angry. I was sad.
I knew I needed to do something to make a difference.”

And there’s Myron Celestine. “I was born and raised in Desire,” he says. “I grew up with only my mother. When I was three and my younger brother was one, our father was shot and killed in our home.” Myron met Leverett through the Carver High School football program and immediately connected with him. “Before that point, I had no male figures in my life,” he says, “but during my 11 th grade year, I gave my life to Christ at a DSM Bible study.” The road for Myron was rough—including drugs and a stint in jail—but today he lives straight, serving as Recreation Coordinator for the ministry. “ Coach Mo gave me a chance to give something back to the community I once took a part in destroying.”

Stories like these abound. Over half of the staff at DSM are young men and women from the neighborhood, and they have had a major effect in the community. In fact, Leverett had started plans to replicate the ministry nationwide in other pockets of poverty when Katrina devastated New Orleans. The storm scattered DSM’s 192 boys and 50 staff members across America—a situation that some see as providential.

The staff and students at DSM vacated before the storm hit. Wuerffel, his wife, and young son left with their dog, family photographs, a few documents, a video camera, three or four changes of clothes and two pillows. When he finally visited their home two days ago, he found black mold up to the ceilings. The walls were so thin they crumbled when pressed hard enough. “The place smelled like a sewer,” he said. “And there’s nothing left.”

Despite the loss, Wuerffel remains resolutely optimistic. "We just relearned the difference between want and need," he says. "How much time do we spend saying, 'We need this, we need this' and get bent out of shape? Now we've got nothing, and yet we have everything we need. I've got my wife and son and food and shelter.” Beyond those things, the only thing Wuerffel wants is to find every boy who was displaced by the disaster returned to his “family” at DSM.

The DSM staff is working to recover, relocate, and rebuild. As of October 7, 2005, they had found 135 of their boys. Using a variety of means ranging from school busses to private jets donated by concerned individuals, they have relocated the majority of the teens to a temporary facility in Niceville, Florida.

The young men will board there for the remainder of the school year while DSM is renovating the school in New Orleans. The main facility was submerged beneath 6 ½ feet of water and needs to be gutted, but there is no structural damage. All of the furniture, computers, and appliances are gone.

But restoring DSM is only half of the battle. The bigger question is, Will there be a community to come back to? “Most everybody lost their home, either from damage or mold,” says Ben McLeish, DSM’s director. “There are only two people whose homes are okay. One of them was a renter who lived on the second floor. Most of the neighborhood will be bulldozed. ”Nevertheless, DSM forges ahead. Prior to Katrina, they had begun work on a football field and dormitory and will resume those projects as soon as possible. Now it looks as if the ministry may become a full-time boarding school, something residents of Desire need desperately.

“The public school system in Louisiana is at the bottom,” says Wuerffel. “ New Orleans is at the bottom of that, and Desire is at the bottom of that. If a young person in our community dreams of going to college and learning, and they become the valedictorian at the public school in Desire community, they’ll graduate without being able to pass the ACT. You have to have opportunities to succeed in life, and we provide opportunities.” DSM strives daily to overcome the cultural conditioning their boys grow up with. Having no family structure, most live in unsupervised poverty governed only by their basest instincts.

“The ability to recognize opportunity is learned,” says Wuerffel. “A work ethic is taught. The world was shocked to see violence in New Orleans after the storm. In my opinion, the real shocking thing is that many of our kids lived with that before the storm. The same issues plague inner cities all over the country. It’s time for church and Christians to step up and make a difference.”

“If I had five lives to live, I’d try them all,” he says.
“But when you have only one life to live—one life to give—you have to choose very carefully where you invest it.”

Last Christmas, Wuerffel was walking in the DSM gymnasium. He saw a newspaper spread open to an article on Peyton Manning, who had broken Dan Marino’s touchdown record. The first thought that went through his mind was, I wouldn’t trade places with him.

Although Wuerffel’s career has been a bumpy road, he has played in the NFL with outstanding teams and has won numerous awards, including football’s highest honor. Still, it is his passion for the poor that drives him. "You know, the world just pounds the message into your brain that if you make enough money and if you're successful in your field, that's all you need. But you can ask just about anybody who's been successful—somehow there always seems to be a longing for something more. I believe we were made to find fulfillment in our relationship with God. When we look for it in other places, we come up empty."

When he retired from the Washington Redskins, Wuerffel got a lot of offers for work: coaching, advertising, etc. “If I had five lives to live, I’d try them all,” he says. “But when you have only one life to live—one life to give—you have to choose very carefully where you invest it.”

If you would like to donate to Desire Street Ministries, visit their website at www.desirestreet.org .

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