Change for Change raises $700, expects to raise thousands more

Georgia College & State University’s Coverdell Leadership Living Learning Community is pledging to make a difference in the Katrina relief effort by collecting donations through Oct. 7 with Project Change for Change.

“We want it to be GC&SU’s student led response to all future local, national and international disasters,” said Rachel Hodge, a sophomore who conceived the idea for Project Change for Change. “Donations go straight to the American Red Cross,”

The Red Cross rushed to the aid of the victims of Hurricane Katrina and does the same for thousands of other disasters each year.

Hodge, who is familiar with the fear that can be inflicted by natural disaster said, “I’m from Savannah which is a coastal area, and I’ve had to evacuate before. So I just felt like I needed to do something.”

She expressed her desire to help the victims to her fellow Coverdell Leadership LLC members, who shared her enthusiasm.

Donations benefit people like Helen T. Webster, an 86-year old New Orleans native who was evacuated to the Red Cross Shelter at Rock Eagle 4-H Center in Eatonton, GA. Webster’s Benton Street residence was flooded to the roof when Katrina furiously hit on the early morning of Aug. 29.

Webster said she was lucky to have gone to her nephew’s house to seek refuge after she had been rejected from the overcrowded Superdome. After sleeping three days and three nights in the dusky mildewed attic of her nephew’s home, they busted through the dense roof where they slept for their last night in water logged New Orleans. On the fourth day, a boat cruised through the defiled choppy water to the roof and rescued them.

“I wasn’t afraid. It’s the Lord’s will, and whatever he wants done will happen,” said Webster. “I’m living one day at a time trusting in the Lord. After all, I’m blessed. It could have been a lot worse.”

The Coverdell Leadership LLC is seeking to receive a dollar per student which would raise around $5000. As of Saturday, Sept. 24, the group had raised $700. The group has high hopes that GC&SU students will use Project Change for Change as an opportunity to do something good for those who lost everything when Katrina overwhelmed the Gulf Coast.

“We’re accepting any donations from change to anything higher,” said freshman Josh Saggus.

Saggus and other Coverdell Leadership LLC members will collect donations at tables set up in Maxwell Student Union and at the Arts & Sciences Courtyard. They are also sending representatives to student clubs and local businesses with high hopes that they too would be interested in lending a helping hand.

“We will also have volunteers in the residence halls coming up,” said Hodge, who is tirelessly working to insure that no student will pass up the opportunity to help in the relief effort.

Students, faculty and the general public can make donations for the hurricane victims at MidSouth Federal Credit Union, located on the lower floor of Maxwell Student Union where an account has been established under the name Project Change for Change.

Project Change for Change gives GC&SU students and faculty a chance to share Webster’s optimism by donating just a dollar to help relieve the burden that fell from the sky and onto the Big Easy that fateful summer day.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 30 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