Student group to expand Katrina relief

Three months after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, hundreds of people from around the country volunteered their time in hopes of fixing what had been destroyed. Of those volunteers, six IU students got together with the intent to plan a trip to the region over winter break.\nA little more than a year later, the students have formed a new group called Y'ALL and are attempting to establish themselves as a new student leadership organization.\nY'ALL, an acronym for Youth Advocating Leadership and Learning, formed this summer after trips to the Gulf Coast last spring and again this summer. Once a small operation, the group is hoping to expand and take further roles in Katrina and other disaster relief efforts. \nJunior Michael Deranek, a member of the Y'ALL executive committee, said in the past the then-nameless organization passed out wrist bands to students that read "volunteer, y'all." Shortly after, while applying for grants the group had to write a name on the applications. That's when Deranek decided on Y'ALL. \n"It really does embody the overarching goal of what we were trying to do," Deranek said.\nThat goal, Deranek said, is to advocate youth leadership and to help make people aware of service opportunities and the importance of helping those in need. \n"The organization really started with the intent of doing one trip last winter," Deranek said. "We had a huge response from student volunteers wanting to do another trip."\nFollowing its second trip during spring break, Y'ALL took 100 additional students to Mississippi during the summer and are planning a fourth trip this winter. \nVolunteers' tasks vary depending on the time of the trip and the area they assist. \n"On the winter trip, it was almost entirely debris removal and helping people clear away the damage," he said. "We were working right across the street from the gulf. Now there is still debris removal mixed with construction work."\nThe change in the nature of the tasks has made it more difficult to plan work, said junior Patricia Tryon who's interning full-time for Y'ALL as its external coordinator. Tryon said Y'ALL is in the works of pairing with organizations like Habitat for Humanity of Monroe County and companies like Lowe's and Menards to help set up training sessions for their volunteers.\n"We're looking into ways to get that skilled labor and make us a more skilled work force," Tryon said.\nAlong with training from Habitat for Humanity, Y'ALL volunteers hope to do work for the organization to establish themselves as an active group on campus and not just in the South.\nIU student Alix Moll was one of the original trip planners last December and now is a member of the group's executive committee, planning transportation, fundraising and housing for volunteers. She said one of the best things about Y'ALL's trips is that the group isn't affiliated with any religious or ethnic group, so anyone can come.\n"We really welcome diversity in the group," Moll said. "We leave with 50 to 200 strangers, and we come back as 50 to 200 friends."\nMoll said she hopes that eventually Y'ALL will act as "IU's arm" in other disasters that occur around the country and hopes that it will be called upon not only as a student action group but also as a representative of the campus.