CLU students will help Katrina victims

Students from California Lutheran University headed to Biloxi, Miss. to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The delegation of 18 students and four others from the university arrived on the Gulf Coast on Jan. 6 to work with Lutheran Disaster Response and Interfaith Disaster Response for six days. Another group of CLU students is scheduled to return to the Florida region of the Gulf Coast during spring break in March.

Although the idea of “alternative” holiday breaks isn’t a new concept at CLU, the idea to go to the Gulf Coast during January came from a CLU alumnus who contacted Biloxi churches following the storm last fall.

Believing the best way to help the victims of Katrina was through a direct connection, Mark Storer, a member of Westlake Lutheran Church, used the Internet to find churches in need at www. reliefconnections.org.

“I couldn’t go myself to help, but I wanted to do all that I could for the people in the devastated Gulf Coast,” Storer said.

When he shared the needs of the people at Beauvoir United Methodist and Bethel Lutheran Church in Biloxi with his own congregation in Westlake Village, the response was “phenomenal.”

Within two weeks, they had shipped 5,000 pounds of goods, followed by 35,000 pounds of food from a pasta company that found out about their direct efforts. Friendships via phone flourished, and Storer continued to coordinate projects to “keep the people of Biloxi in the forefront of everyone’s minds.”

When news of the Katrina’s devastation reached the Rev. Melissa Maxwell-Doherty, campus pastor at CLU, she knew it would be a perfect project for the CLU students. With help from Kirstine Odegard, coordinator of the CLU Community Service Center, Moxwell-Doherty began planning a spring trip to the Gulf Coast.

However, when Storer approached her with a request to provide much-needed help sooner, they began working with the CLU alumnus and members of Bethel Lutheran Church to plan the January trip.

“I am honored to be a part of this effort and proud that students from my alma mater are actually going to Biloxi to help,” said Storer, who hopes to go to Biloxi to help later this year. In support of the students’ willingness to forego part of their holiday break, Westlake Lutheran Church has provided funds and supplies to assist the students in their efforts to reach out to the citizens of Biloxi. Once in the coastal city— which was one of the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina—volunteers will help build new housing and assist in a variety of other services.

Members of the Westlake Village congregation have given frequent flyer miles, gloves, socks, jeans and encouragement, said Maxwell-Doherty, who was to accompany the students to Mississippi.  

In the spring, a group of CLU students will be joining students from several other colleges and universities around the country to assist victims of Hurricane Wilma in Florida. The spring trip has been supplemented by funds from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.