From ready-to-eat meals to gift cards and housing assistance, many find ways to lend hand


Soon after Hurricane Katrina struck, Lipscomb University students Chris Collins and Robin Clark started selling Mardi Gras beads for $1 per strand to raise money to help victims. The project, dubbed “Beads for Needs,” soon spread to other Tennessee universities.

“We were watching TV and decided we had to do something,” said Collins, who described response on the Nashville, Tenn., campus as outstanding. “Helping like this is not common among all young people. Seeing it here has been refreshing.”

Across the nation, universities associated with the churches of Christ used the tragedy of Katrina as an opportunity to show love and compassion - from providing immediate shelter for evacuees to launching long-term outreach efforts.

Despite the distance from the hurricane's path, some students didn't have to travel far to help those in need. Forty-eight evacuees were housed at Lake Cisco Christian Camp in Cisco, Texas, and nearby Abilene Christian University responded by providing support and Red Cross training for student volunteers.

Freed-Hardeman University, Henderson, Tenn., provided transportation to evacuees from the Gulf Coast and housing at nearby Mid-South Youth Camp. Barry England, Freed-Hardeman's vice president for planning and technology, said the time students spend helping is an important part of Christian education.

“It very much is an effort to teach service,” England said. “The time spent teaching service and engaging service is every bit as beneficial as sitting in a classroom.”

Using money raised in its “Wave Relief Campaign,” Pepperdine University, Malibu, Calif., provided housing for more than 200 evacuees at Los Angeles' Dream Center and bought $50 gift cards to help victims with basic needs. Pepperdine also bought 270,000 ready-to-eat meals and bottled water to send to Louisiana.

In other cases, students headed to the disaster areas to offer help.

Harding University, Searcy, Ark., plans to send small groups of students to help congregations in relief efforts every weekend until Thanksgiving. In a similar gesture, students and faculty members from Oklahoma Christian University, Oklahoma City, and Rochester College, Rochester Hill, Mich., helped with relief projects in the affected coastal areas. Freed-Hardeman also plans to send regular teams to the disaster area to help clean up homes.
“We want to make it so that all students who want to go can,” England said.
“This way we can give help to those who need it for a long period of time without disrupting classes too much.”

Andrew Baker, executive director of Harding's Institute for Church and Family, said the outpouring of aid by univesities is unlike anything he has seen.
“An unprecedented disaster requires an unprecedented response,” Baker said. “This provides us with an opportunity for long-term good to be done.”

Besides mobilizing people to help, many Christian universities offered expedited admission, late enrollment waivers, and free tuition and housing options to displaced students. Nick Matthews, who attended the University of New Orleans before the hurricane, enrolled at Oklahoma Christian.

“Everyone I have met has been so friendly, and they treated me as one of their own as soon as I stepped on campus,” Matthews said.