Students go to Mississippi for Hurricane Katrina relief

While many students spent the weekend partying only to return home in the early morning hours, 73 students from the greek community arrived in Gulfport, Miss. at 9:30 a.m. Friday to clean up hurricane damage left over from Katrina.\nSleep deprived after their long journey across several states, they immediately began to help local residents in the area through an organization called God's Katrina Kitchen, which serves hot meals and helps residents with costly repairs. \nJunior David Schweer, a member of Phi Kappa Psi who organized the event, said the group also raised $1,600 to give to God’s Katrina Kitchen, $400 of which came from the IU Student Association and the rest came from donations. \nSchweer said the money will go to God’s Katrina Kitchen and part will go to a kitchen volunteer who is putting his granddaughter through school. \n“As college students, we know how important education is,” he said. \nSophomore Chelsea Vanderlinden, another organizer from Delta Gamma, said they had found the organization through the Campus Crusade for Christ Web site. The students from 12 different greek houses had to pay $50 each for travel costs, and God’s Katrina Kitchen provided housing and food for the weekend.\nSophomore Brittani Herniak, another member of Delta Gamma, said her group helped to demolish a damaged house trailer. The owner had recently received a new trailer with help from a local church and the kitchen. \n“It was amazing to see everyone work together,” she said. “When we got there, we see this entire house in front of us but when we left, it was just a metal frame and the floorboards.”\nOther groups helped salvage items from local apartments that were going to be demolished. She explained that things like doors could be used in other people’s homes.\nSchweer said his group worked on an old retired couple’s house that had flood damage to its foundation. He said they used a jackhammer to destroy the old foundation so they could replace it. \n“They showed us (old) pictures – they had obviously taken a lot of pride in their house,” he said. \nThis was the group’s second trip to Mississippi. Schweer said that this trip allowed them to interact more with the residents and to see the progress made. \n“It was humbling to see how easy it is to take for granted the life I have up in Bloomington,” Herniak said.\nDespite the progress, both agreed that there is still much work to be done. \n“It looks like a bomb was dropped,” Schweer said. “Where there were houses, there aren’t anymore – just the foundations left. All of the trees are dead. It’s all sandy. There is no grass anymore.”\nHerniak agreed. \n“It’s not so much like the day after,” she said. “But you can just tell that there used to be people thriving here, that they’re no longer able to do that.”