NEW ORLEANS -- When Sasianna Meadows, a 17-year-old student from Akron North High School, boarded a plane Wednesday at LeBron James' expense, she'd never so much as smashed a nail with a hammer.

Some 24 hours later, in a poor, predominantly black New Orleans neighborhood, she and 22 other Akron teens had hung drywall, installed ceiling vents, and reframed doorways inside a soon-to-be-refurbished home that a local non-profit will sell to a teacher at a discount.

"It means that anything is possible; like, the sky's the limit," said Meadows, when asked what this NBA All-Star experience meant to her. "You can learn anything and have it, another skill under your belt."

Meadows is one of 23 "ambassadors" for the LeBron James Family Foundation's mentoring program that James sent to New Orleans as part of All-Star Weekend. All are in high school and attend either Akron Public Schools or St. Vincent-St. Mary's (James' alma mater), and they'll spend the first two days of their trip rebuilding homes in the old city's ravaged neighborhoods.

This is the third season in which James has sent Akron students to the All-Star host city, but the first in which their mission is so focused.

"Before" picture

The house Meadows and her friends fixed on Thursday, in the Bayou St. John, was damaged by Hurricane Katrina and then left to rot when many of its inhabitants never returned after the storm.

On Friday, the James Foundation ambassadors will begin to refurbish a home that was heavily damaged by the powerful tornado that ripped through New Orleans East a little over a week ago. And then on Saturday -- the students get a little basketball time first; they get to attend All-Star practice where James, Kyrie Irving, and the East All-Stars will prepare for Sunday's game -- the students will use what they saw and did in New Orleans to identify a problem in Akron that needs solving.

And get on with solving it.

"Following LeBron's lead, this year we really wanted to draw out the experience much more, well beyond All-Star weekend," said Michele Campbell, executive director for James' foundation. "We all remember what LeBron said at the ESPYs, what he's been saying lately, about going back into our communities. We want what the students do here, what they experience, to become a part of their framework."

Campbell said James paid for the plane tickets, hotel, meals, and transportation for the entire work party, though she did not know the dollar amount. James can afford it.

For a refresher, in July James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade and Chris Paul kicked off the ESPYs with a solemn, pointed speech decrying the rash of shootings of African-Americans by police, as well as shootings of some Dallas police officers. James said then that athletes should use the moment to "go back to our communities. Invest our time, our resources. Help rebuild them, help strengthen them, help change them. We all have to do better."

His foundation's mentorship program is for children, mostly from inner-city Akron, who face various socioeconomic barriers to learning. The program's participants start in the third grade, and the first class of students is now in the eighth grade.

James' "ambassadors" are high-performing high school students who help mentor the younger children.

They are chaperoned by eight adults this weekend in New Orleans, including Nicole Hassan, who is in her second month in the newly created, full-time position of liaison between the foundation and Akron Public Schools. She advises James' program leaders on how to help the students meet Ohio schooling standards, as well as the schools on how to incorporate the lessons the students learn on field trips like this into their curriculum.

It is Hassan who will guide the James ambassadors in identifying their own community project based on their New Orleans experience, but she said "I know they'll come up with something on their own, something awesome, something better than anything we could."

"It's been really impactful for me personally to see this service project unfold and see how it's already impacted our students first hand," Hassan said. "When they started, they didn't know how to turn on a power saw; now they're putting up walls. It's amazing."

James wasn't at the house on St. Ann Street, but will speak to his students this weekend and told cleveland.com "how special it is for me" that they were involved in this kind of work.

Ross Faetanini, (17, St. Vincent-St. Mary), Makaleigh Donges (16, Ellet), Dameona Meriweather (17 Akron Early College), and Erikah Tinsley (18, Akron Early College) were hanging sheetrock in the laundry room toward the end of the day.

"After" pic

Faetanini noted that James Foundation members occasionally take on service projects at home, but never something as involved as rebuilding a home.

"It's absolutely spectacular," Faetanini said. "We get to help people in a way that we haven't been able to in Akron."

The non-profit James' students are partnering with this week is called Youth Rebuilding New Orleans, which arose after Katrina and employs local young adults as supervisors for volunteers in these rebuilding projects.

Dwayne Prince Holmes, Jr., who is Youth Rebuilding's executive director, is 23. Like so many New Orleans residents, Holmes is thrilled the NBA is in town for the All-Star Game and said "I love everything about LeBron."

But it was the lesson James' students were learning that left the biggest impression on Holmes.

"The fact that he sent his organization down here to create an opportunity for young people, not only building houses but focusing on giving back through community service, that's a lesson on its own," Holmes said.