“I realized recently that I’ve only lived with my actual parents for maybe four or five years of my life. That was just our normal after Katrina.”
When Hurricane Katrina tore through New Orleans in 2005, the Fraychineaud family was scattered like so many others.
Four-year-old Holly bounced between FEMA trailers and relatives’ homes with her parents. Her sister, Joy, stayed at the Louisiana School for the Deaf in Baton Rouge. And her brother Glenn, then eight years old, evacuated with the Boys Hope program, never imagining it would be months before life resembled normal again.
“I realized recently that I’ve only lived with my actual parents for maybe four or five years of my life,” Holly reflected. “That was just our normal after Katrina.”
Despite the dislocation, Holly and Glenn leaned on each other. Glenn remembers being five years old when Holly was born, initially wishing for a brother but quickly becoming her biggest companion. “We were always adventurous,” he recalled. “We’d go to the park, try new things, or later take day trips just to get out and see the world. That sense of adventure was something we always shared.”
Holly remembers it the same way: “I would follow him around like a little puppy because I wanted to be exactly like him.”
Young Glenn and Holly Fraychineaud together.
Holly Fraychineaud as a young scholar in the girls’ house at Hope Ignites New Orleans.
“It was better schools, supportive mentors, and experiences that pushed us outside the neighborhood to things like games, camps, even trips. For kids like us, that meant everything.”
Katrina disrupted that bond for a time: Glenn spent weeks in Baton Rouge attending a temporary school while Holly, barely old enough for kindergarten, was placed in classes at the Louisiana School for the Deaf alongside Joy. Yet even in those disjointed years, their closeness remained a constant.
Part of that bond came from their unique upbringing as CODAs: Children of Deaf Adults. Both of their parents, George and Mary, are deaf, and ASL was the first language in their household. “It was natural from day one,” Glenn said. “We’d sign with our parents, and sometimes with each other across a room or at church when we didn’t want to speak out loud. It was just part of who we were.”
The siblings also carried the responsibility of interpreting for their parents in daily life, navigating both the hearing and Deaf worlds with ease. “We kind of had our own secret language,” Glenn remembered with a laugh. “Sometimes we’d sign things we didn’t want others to hear. But more importantly, it made us close-knit as a family. It was just our normal.”
In time, both siblings found a second home in Hope Ignites New Orleans. Glenn entered first, giving his parents confidence to enroll Holly a few years later. By age eight, she was the youngest scholar in the Girls Hope residence, surrounded by high schoolers. “I was the baby, and everyone kind of babied me,” Holly laughed. “Over time, it became home”.
Glenn believes the program gave them both structure and opportunity they wouldn’t have had otherwise: “It was better schools, supportive mentors, and experiences that pushed us outside the neighborhood to things like games, camps, even trips. For kids like us, that meant everything.”
Through Hope Ignites, Holly discovered her passion for science and the natural world. Service requirements led her to join Groundwork New Orleans, where she planted rain gardens and tested bayou water quality, and to Edible Schoolyard, where she taught children about food and soil. “Any environmental opportunity I could find, I took it,” she said. “And Hope Ignites made that possible.”
She went on to study environmental science, graduating from Loyola University New Orleans in 2022. Today, Holly serves as Water Quality Coordinator at the Pontchartrain Conservancy, where she monitors the health of Louisiana’s waterways. “I get to be outside, protecting the waters that are part of who we are in Louisiana,” she said.
Now living in different cities (Holly in New Orleans and Glenn in Philadelphia, where he recently landed a job as a procurement agent at Boeing Defense) the siblings remain close, still trading texts, FaceTimes, and inside jokes in sign language. For both, their bond, their shared resilience through Katrina, and their experience as CODAs continue to shape who they are.
“I always looked up to Glenn,” Holly said. “And I always looked up to her,” Glenn added. “Even though she’s younger, she set the bar high academically and personally. She’s always been smart, athletic, and true to herself. I’ve learned a lot from her”.
For Holly, that strength now flows into the waters she protects. For Glenn, it continues in the steady support he offers his family. And for both, Hope Ignites was the place that turned upheaval into opportunity and gave their adventurous spirits room to thrive.
