Students volunteer time for victims

Approximately 60 GC&SU students packed into the Northside Baptist Church auditorium on September 8, looking for a way to volunteer their time to Hurricane Katrina victims.

Sandy Baxter, executive director of the Oconee Valley chapter of the American Red Cross, initially intended for the meeting to be the first in a series of training seminars aimed at certifying students as Red Cross volunteers. But due to an unexpectedly large turn out by GC&SU students, the seminar was converted into an orientation.

Baxter is the only full-time employee of the Red Cross in five counties. The rest of her staff is made up of volunteers, many of whom come from GC&SU.

“I wish we could do more, but with volunteers from the college, we’re getting a lot of things done,” Baxter said. “The college students do a massive amount of work.”

Out of the roughly 60 people who attended the meeting, approximately 40 signed up. The rest optioned to join other organizations like the Putnam Christian Outreach, which does not require training certification by the Red Cross.

Six hundred and fifty New Orleans evacuees are presently being lodged at Rock Eagle. Buses filled with evacuees started arriving at Rock Eagle on September 4 at 4 p.m. The buses didn’t stop coming in until Monday at 5 a.m.

Baxter says that 16 to 18 GC&SU students are working at that facility. Twenty-five GC&SU students went through Red Cross certification last year. This year that number is sure to increase due to efforts to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Only students who have gone through the training may work at Rock Eagle, but Baxter added that there are lots of alternatives for volunteer work.

“The students do so much more than disaster. Disaster is on everybody’s mind right now, but we do so much more,” Baxter said.

Rebekah Poston and Trish Willson are two GC&SU volunteers who have unexpectedly been swept up in the momentum of the largest relief effort in Red Cross history. Poston, Baxter’s administrative assistant, has been involved in volunteer work since she was 6-years-old. She is a graduate student at GC&SU studying public administration and joined the Red Cross as an internship, just a few short months before Katrina hit.

Poston does everything from filing evacuees’ family information to fielding phone calls, some of which are from people looking for lost loved ones. She considers that task her most difficult responsibility. Poston has a sister in Louisiana who she has not heard from since the disaster struck.

Willson, a nursing student at GC&SU, wanted to set up a program with the Red Cross to certify nursing students in CPR and first aid. That was before Katrina. Now she thinks other things take priority.

“It kind of got into my head when I heard about the hurricane and all the ramifications it was going to have,” Willson said. After the hurricane, Willson wrote a letter to Dr. Bruce Harshbarger describing how she wanted to help. Her phone number was accidentally made public in a Student Digest email last week, and since then, Willson has fielded 80 phone calls.

“This is long term. We are going to need volunteers,” Poston said. The Red Cross will be in need of volunteers for this effort until at least November.

Students interested in helping should call Kendall Stiles at the GIVE center at (478) 445-5936.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 16 2005. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry