Morgan Kaplan & The Rye Pres New Orleans Youth Group Mission

When Rye High School senior Morgan Kaplan was unexpectedly lost on November 18th, his family asked for donations in his memory to the Rye Presbyterian Church, New Orleans Youth Group mission.

Rye Presbyterian typically runs the youth missions once a year in June, right after school ends, and began running the New Orleans mission after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The church works with a local group Rebuilding Together New Orleans to help fix up homes – many still being repaired from Katrina.

Kaplan was one of the students to travel to New Orleans this past summer to work on home repair projects including painting, removing and installing drywall and other construction activities. “He’s very dedicated. He just connected with everyone, as if we were all friends from the beginning,” said Jean-Paul Marshall, associate pastor for Christian education at Rye Presbyterian when describing Kaplan. “And found out he just likes to build. That’s part of the reason he signed up. You can just see his face of – I have my task and I’m going to get it done. He wanted to help people.” Kaplan also worked on local service projects including a wooden path installation at Rye Town Park and local clean-up projects after Hurricane Ida hit Rye.

The church works to raise $20,000 each year to offset the cost of the youth mission, which typically involves about thirty students along with six chaperones. The church offers parking during the Rye – Harrison football game to raise funds and then its biggest fundraiser is a “NOLA Bingo” program (NOLA is short for New Orleans, Louisiana) it runs the Sunday before or after Mardis Gras each year. In 2022, there are plans to run two service trips – one to New Orleans and a new, second program to Chicago.

If you would like to honor the memory of Morgan Kaplan, you can donate to the Rye Presbyterian Church, New Orleans Youth Group mission.