LC students and staff spent fall break in Mississippi helping with hurricane relief
By Erica Niles
A group of students and staff members at LC decided to do fall break a little differently this year. Instead of going home to visit parents and get the laundry done, a group of 23 took the 16-hour drive down to Waveland, Mississippi to help clean the after-effects of Hurricane Katrina.
The team departed Lynchburg at about 12:40 p.m. on Friday, October 14th. Cramped tight into three vans headed south, they began what would be a long journey. The LC crew arrived in Waveland at 3:15 a.m., where they immediately laid out sleeping bags on the floor of an old dance studio attached to a house, to sleep for the rest of the night.
The home belonged to the mother of Hayward Guenard, a previous member of the LC community and staff member of the Residence Life department. Guenard worked closely with the LC team in planning the trip. Once in Waveland, the LC team worked closely with a team that Guenard brought with him from his current job at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, IUPUI.
The team was awoken only hours upon their arrival to begin work. Guenard began by giving the team a quick tour of the town. Destruction was everywhere. The vans were very quiet as the team took in the amount of damage this small waterfront community had suffered.
The combined teams from LC and IUPUI split up and headed to different houses. Work the first day was hard on many students as they had only a few hours of sleep. The work was physically and emotionally difficult and the weather was hot. Work consisted in large part of clearing out debris from homes, yard work, and tree removal.
“I don’t think I’ve ever felt this productive,” freshman Rosalind Eberhart said.
The team seemed intrigued by the Made Ready to Eat meals, MREs, provided by the government to eat. These small self-con-tained meals included a bag that could instantly heat up the meal. These meals contained over 3000 calories per bag.
On Saturday the combined team began work at Little Zion Baptist Church. This small, African-American church had been untouched since the storm. The team found the church in shambles. Pews, hymnal books, and anything else that could be found in a church covered the ground. In record time, the team managed to get everything out of the church building and into organized piles of either salvageable items or garbage.
Once finished with the “organizational” part, the students began to take out all the drywall and insulation. The church was completely gutted by early that afternoon. Members of the deacon board helped in the process.
“I really thought it was cool when the people came in and helped us help them,” sophomore Nikita Ozment said.
The next morning, the team woke up extra-early to take the hour drive to New Orleans for a bit of sightseeing. They spent the few hours they were there walking up and down the French Commons. They were stopped on Bourbon Street after visiting one of only a handful of open stores, by the local news station who proceeded to interview them on their reasons for coming to New Orleans.
They arrived back in Waveland in time for a quick lunch and then got right back to work. The afternoon job consisted of cleaning out a condemned house for an elderly man. The carpet, which was immediately removed from the house, was full of sludge-like mud. While one group worked on the carpet, another began removing kitchen appliances including a rotten refrigerator.
“It’s a shame,” senior Amber Lilley said. “It sucks that this was a beautiful beachfront home that has been destroyed.”
“Nothing compares to the smell of appliances that have been underwater,” sophomore Nicole Carneal said. “But I’m glad I got the opportunity to help out.”
The team arrived back at Lynchburg College at 12:30 a..m. Wednesday morning. They were all extremely exhausted and happy to be back.
“It’s so overwhelming, it feels like you get nothing done,” junior Serena Bellamy said. “You always want to do more.”
Link to full issue: https://www.virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=COG20051027
