NASHVILLE, Tenn. – More than 100 Vanderbilt University students will spend their fall break Oct. 22-25 helping Hurricane Katrina survivors in Louisiana and Mississippi reclaim some semblance of a normal life.
Around 90 students and nine faculty and staff members will travel by bus on a trip organized by the university’s Division of Student Life to work in the rural townships of Pine, Thomas and Angie near Bogalusa, La., in Washington Parish. The parish is located in the “boot toe” of Louisiana. The group will work with the parish’s sheriff and volunteer fire departments to clear debris, as well as work with students from Baton Rouge’s Southern University to conduct a needs assessment among residents in order to help local agencies distribute goods and services.
On Friday, Oct. 21, the group will load on to a bus around 8 p.m. to travel overnight to work Saturday through Monday before returning to Nashville on Tuesday. The bus will depart from Branscomb Quad, a grouping of residence halls located on Vanderbilt Place off of 25th Avenue. Trinity Baptist Church in Franklinton, La., will put the group up during their stay.
A team of 10 Vanderbilt students plans to help residents in D’Iberville, Miss., which is just north of Biloxi, through the Presbyterian Campus Ministry. A third group of students, on a trip organized by the Episcopal and Methodist student ministries, will travel to Pass Christian, Miss., near Gulfport, to help with clean-up and rebuilding efforts.
“About 700 of our students are from the Gulf Coast region so the effects of this disaster have hit home, literally for some, in the Vanderbilt community. We’re glad to be able to provide some help,” said David Williams II, vice chancellor for student life and university affairs.
The Division of Student Life is coordinating the Louisiana trip with Families Helping Families, a Louisiana-based network of family-directed resource centers. The organization was started by a group of families who, through their own experiences, are committed to reaching out to other families who have members with special needs, including physical, mental, emotional, behavioral and/or academic issues.
Donations will be collected on campus for residents in Louisiana’s Washington Parish. Among the items the parish’s agencies have said are needed are adult clothing and a number of items for children attending K-12 schools, including school supplies, school uniforms and sneakers.
Those making the trip to Louisiana had previously indicated they were interested in doing community service in the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina by entering their names into an online database established by the Division of Student Life shortly after the tragedy.
Food and blood drives, a car wash, concerts and cookouts are just some of the activities that students, faculty and staff have organized to help Katrina survivors.
To find out more about activities planned at the university to help hurricane survivors, visit www.vanderbilt.edu/katrina.
For more news about Vanderbilt, visit the News Service homepage at www.vanderbilt.edu/news.
Media Contact: Princine Lewis, (615) 322-NEWS
princine.l.lewis@vanderbilt.edu