Elon students returned Tuesday from their fall break service trip to provide Hurricane Katrina relief assistance to the Gulfport, Miss., area. Details…
Story by Cathy Hefferin
Photos by Jerome Sturm
University Relations
The nearly full moon casts a bright reflection on the calm waters of the Gulf. Along this part of the shore overlooking the Mississippi Sound in the small town of Bay St. Louis, Miss., stands what Hurricane Katrina hasn’t destroyed of Our Lady of the Gulf (OLG) Catholic church, its community center, schools, surrounding buildings and grounds.
The hum of a generator interrupts the otherwise quiet Friday night. Five Elon University students (Carolyne Byrne, Kenny English, Rob Livengood, Steve Maier and Maggie Murphy) play cards inside a tent, one of about 15 they set up earlier in the day after painstakingly raking the sandy ground to rid it of glass and other debris in anticipation of the arrival of the remainder of the 30 students, two student leaders and eight faculty and staff making up the Break for the Bay fall break service group.
The community center actually reflects much progress since the advance team of Jenny Trimble, director of the Kernodle Center for Service Learning, and JJ Scott, North Carolina Campus Compact VISTA, toured the area three weeks ago. The debris is gone from the inside. Half-renovated bathrooms stand ready for the group to use (with large barrels of water sitting beside each toilet for flushing). The generator provides temporary lighting. But there is much more to accomplish.
Just before 9 p.m., the Elon minibus driven by Keith Dimont, supervisor of automotive services, pulls in with 21 more students and the two student leaders, Emily Dillard and Elyse Elliott, both education majors and Teaching Fellows. Following them is an Elon University truck carrying relief supplies with staff members Ray Pruitt and Chris Williams. The five members of the advance team clap and gather around to welcome them. The last van of students, who didn’t leave Elon until noon on Friday, wouldn’t arrive until much later that evening.
Saturday morning begins with a tour of the town led by Father Michael Tracey of OLG. Tracey, in the Elon bus leading a small caravan of vehicles through the streets of Bay St. Louis, chronicles the destruction through a walkie-talkie. The group is shocked by the magnitude of the destruction, which has reduced homes closest to the beach to no more than concrete slabs. A few blocks inland, it is almost worse, the debris from the flattened beach homes deposited here, knocking homes off their foundations and crumbling them.
Carson Foushee, a junior from Statesville, N.C., majoring in leisure and sport management, says he remembers seeing photographs of the destruction in the Moseley Center. “I knew right away that I was being called to come here,” he says. He has been active in service work since high school. “I’ve seen hurricanes on TV, but it’s worse than I imagined.”
The students break into three teams after the tour and each gets its assignment from Dan Wilkins, a retired contractor from Atlanta handling volunteer organization for OLG. The teams would rotate daily between duties which include repairs and cleanup around the community center, going out into the community to see what help was needed, and organizing food, clothing and supplies dropped off at the church’s Crab Fest pavilion. The group even helped set up for a wedding on the church steps.
Hanna Stagg, a sophomore who was born in Seattle but grew up overseas, spent part of the morning cleaning out a toilet that was washed out of the community center by the 35 foot storm surge that slammed into the building. “They went to replace it, but they didn’t have any more in the store,” she says, her work gloves wet to her wrists. “So we salvaged that one. It was completely filled with sea gunk.” After washing it out and bleaching it, Hanna helped a volunteer contractor replace missing parts taken from another broken toilet. “But now I know how a toilet works,” she laughs. Hanna, who actually survived the tsunami in Puket, Thailand, while vacationing there with her family last Christmas, says she is hoping to come back to the area for another service trip. “I like helping,” she says. “It makes me happy.”
Britney Ranew, a sophomore art major, spent Saturday with the team organizing the Crab Fest pavilion. “We organized canned food, tons of peanut butter and sorted clothes trying to put a system together where people could easily find what they needed,” says the redhead from Atlanta. “It made me feel that what we are doing down here is important. We can go back and tell people what is needed,” she says.
Gavin Miller, a senior from Long Island who is double majoring in music and computer information systems, spent the day helping clean out the church’s maintenance shed. Lawn mowers and tables had been thrown against shelves in the back. “It went from piles of sand two inches thick brought in by the wave to a clean, bare floor,” Miller says of the progress they made. “Now they can put new siding on it and it’s ready to use.”
Father Tracey thanked the students before they began their workday. “We appreciate you coming,” he says. “It’s not so much the physical work you are going to do. No matter what task you are given today, it’s helping to rebuild this community. It’s helping to rebuild people’s lives.”