While some of their peers sunbathe, over 100 Washington University students will be cleaning up wreckage during spring break this March. Several campus groups will be volunteering in New Orleans and other regions on the Gulf Coast to provide relief for communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

The University is coordinating seven student groups that will join the relief effort. Students taking the course entitled “Hurricane Katrina: A Case Study in Disaster, Relief, and Political Issues” in the American Culture Studies program, as well as students involved with Campus Y, the Catholic Student Center, Engineers Without Borders, Overflow, St. Louis Hillel, and the Lutheran Campus Ministry will be heading south for spring break. These groups are working independently, but all have a common cause.

Stephanie Kurtzman, director of community service, said the University has responded more actively to the Katrina disaster than to other recent tragedies. So far, the number of student volunteers has reached 114, a number that Kurtzman hopes will grow.

Volunteers will work with nonprofit groups and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Additionally, former vice presidential candidate John Edwards has partnered with Habitat for Humanity to provide opportunities for students, and the MTV network has also sponsored relief.

The work will likely involve “serving food, cleaning, working on roofs, and cleaning trash,” said Kurtzman, although much of what volunteers will be doing is still being determined.

Overflow leader Joe Congdon explained that because of “the need of hands to do the work.we’re able to have students go so cheaply,” referring to the fee that will cover food, room, and board. Although the trip itself will be inexpensive, relief is “going to be hard work,” and students with specialties such as carpentry or demolition will be especially useful.

Many students who are going were already a part of one of the seven organizations.

“I got involved with it because I felt like it was a good opportunity to do some service work,” said senior Julia Janecki. “One of the Christian organizations I’m involved with this semester, we’ve been putting a lot of emphasis on service.so, a bunch of us decided we were going to do the trip with Overflow.”

Three events for the groups involved will be held before spring break to provide the students with the background and training necessary for their efforts.

These events include hands-on training with housing projects in north St. Louis, a more conventional training session concerning what to expect in the Gulf Coast, and a send-off reception for the volunteers, in part from the University faculty and board members.

After spring break, a final event will be a public post-trip showcase largely devoted to five testimonials from student groups about the relief effort, as well as a reminder that the condition in the Gulf Coast is, in Kurtzman’s words, “still a critical situation.” This event, Kurtzman hopes, will affirm the University’s “continued commitment” to the victims of the disaster.

Students are looking forward to volunteering for hurricane relief.

“I’m super-excited; I was detached from what happened. I’m excited to really help people out and to make a difference,” said senior Justin Stringer.

Popularity: 1% [?]

 Print This Post

This entry was posted on Friday, February 17th, 2006 at 12:00 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.