In the first chapel service of the semester, University Chaplain Richard McBride encouraged the Elon community to pray for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Details…
Students, faculty and staff gathered in Whitley Auditorium on Sept. 1 to remember the victims in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
“We have refugees in our own country,” McBride said, noting that the hymnals used in Thursday’s service originally belonged to Dillard University in New Orleans. “These would be under water today if we hadn’t had them shipped to us.”
Sophomore Rebecca Kuhn gave a tearful plea for students to take action to help the hurricane victims. “These people have no food and no water — and probably won’t for a very long time,” she said. “These people are on their backs, and I urge you to step up and help them.”
McBride asked the group to gather in the spirit of prayer on behalf of the victims.
“This is an event of very, very large catastrophic proportions, and it’s unlike anything that we’ve ever experienced,” he said. “Our response needs to be immediate, but it also needs to be long-term.”
The poverty level in New Orleans was twice the national average before the hurricane struck, McBride explained. “Listen to their voices on the newscast and you will feel their desperation,” he said.
Chapel closed with a prayer from Fr. Gerry Waterman, Elon’s new Catholic Campus Minister.
Chapel is held on Thursdays at 9:50 a.m. during the fall and spring semesters. Next week’s service will be held around the 9/11 sculpture west of Koury Center to remember the victims of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001.