August 29, 2005
Hurricane Katrina Hits Gulf
Coast—Katrina finishes the trek across the Gulf of Mexico and hits the US Gulf
Coast. Damage is catastrophic.
Early reports have New Orleans being
spared the brunt of the storm however as the day progresses the levies begin to
break causing catastrophic flooding over much of the city.
Originally forecasted to strike New Orleans
directly, the storm had turned to the North and East just prior to land
fall. The storm is enormous and destruction covers a range from Alabama
well into Louisiana. “Ground Zero” of the storm was near Bay St. Louis
MS. Many small towns along the coast are swamped and those who did not evacuate
are stranded.
To the east, the cities of Gulfport
and Biloxi are inundated by the storm from both the Gulf and from the Back Bay.
This double whammy hits especially hard in the East Biloxi area where the
Bridge to Ocean Springs is destroyed and thousands of the city’s poor have
their homes totally flooded.
While estimates still vary, at least 1300
people die from the storm.
At St. Bonaventure it is the first day of the new semester.
August 30-September 4
Finding out how bad it really is.
The enormity of the storm begins to
hit the world.
Seemingly every news report brings
more bad news. There are harrowing pictures of bodies in the streets nearly a
week after storm. All news outlets have reports of the continued flooding
in New Orleans, of looting, animals dying, and FEMA’s inept response.
“It is our tsunami”-Mississippi
Governor Haley Barbour.
September 3
Debbie Yawn arrives in Long Beach MS. She
volunteers with the Salvation Army.
September 4-11, 2005
Monday the decision to go to help is
made.
Over the next week the trip is offered to
various finance classes and the finance club with limited success. When
trip is offered, there is no set plan, only a desire to help. Three
finance students express desire to go.
SIFE begins fundraising with local fire
department.
September 9
Randy May arrives in Pass
Christian MS and begins distributing food and water.
September 10 (SATURDAY)
SIFE joins with American Red Cross and local fire
departments to raise $45,000 to aid in Katrina efforts
October 11th on plane:
Plans are laid out for next two trips.
Over the course of this month, relief organizations
grow. HandsonUSA welcomes 250 new volunteers (including those from the
newly named BonaResponds). Projects include getting bikes to residents and
hanging handmade street signs throughout the area.
November 2005
As relief organizations and residents along the coast try
to celebrate Thanksgiving to bring back some normalcy, on campus planning for
spring break trip picks up steam. Sean Lynch and Christine Francis are
named student leaders. Todd Palmer and Michael Williams of the Journey
Project help arrange financing to subsidize cost of trips to many
students. Over the next months, further funding comes from the Franciscan
Friars and individuals.
January-February 2006
Hands On USA hands
March 2006
Big
Trip: 286 people.
5
sites: New Orleans, Bay St. Louis, Long Beach, St.
Bernard’s Parish, and Biloxi.
Largest in both number and support; 13
faculty members and friars go. Alumni fly in from all around country.
Idea
of Local Service days announced.
BonaResponds
appears on Jim Lehrer national news.
April-June 2006
Planning for how University's existing
organization can handle BonaResponds. Meetings take place on campus and at
Mt. Irenaeus. Idea of BonaServes launched and then scrapped.
Local service day tentatively planned but
BonaResponds agrees to play secondary role for sake of campus unity.
July 2006
Small trip back to the Gulf. Working
in Biloxi and Bay St. Louis. Progress is slow. Many volunteer groups
shutting down. Working with Persevere Volunteers, Jim enjoys moving a
family into their new home. This is a first!
BonaResponds takes over local service days
and announces the first one to be held the first weekend of the new school
year. Approximately 45 people come and work out of Archbishop Walsh High School.
August—September 2006
Local
days~
|
Media Credit: Anthony DiMario |
October –November 2006
In Olean, we had a local day. Went back
to Archbishop Walsh high school and finished painting. This day was led
by James Kane.
BonaResponds grows up and goes to BUFFALO!
Jim's favorite. This showed that
BonaResponds could in fact be a leader in the field. No longer were we
merely working with others. We arrived immediately after the storm
(driving bans in place in most areas).
Some of the cool things about this
trip:
It was student leader initiated.
(Jim got a call saying how bad the area was while in
On Sunday David Campbell the founder
of Hands on Disaster Response donated 3 chain saws that made much of the work
possible over the next month and a half. Working with the Village of
Lancaster and AmeriCorps, BonaResponds led the clearing on almost 100 lawns!
Using chain saws donated by HODR, we
spent 6 of the next 7 weeks in
December 2006-January 2007
Plans
called for Christmas break trip to Biloxi, but only days before Christmas Hands
on Gulf coast said they had no room for us. With the help of Dr. Bob
Titzler who is on our advisory board, we were led to Randy Rangers. Our
first trip came just as they were preparing to move operations from their
original location at the site of the town's elementary school. The
primary work of this trip was building the new camp. (Post script, the
camp survived the high winds and storm of Gustav in 2008)
This turned into one of the most memorable trips. As Randy now calls it,
that week was "one of our jewels."
This
has become a very fruitful relationship for both sides as we have made 3 more
trips to Randy’s. Jim now serves on the board of Randy’s Rangers.
February
2007
Olean
Snow storm. Small crew went out shoveling and received the following:
"Thank
you for sending those angels from St. Bonaventure to shovel for me. I didn't
know how I was ever going to get it done. This is just wonderful! Thank you so
much!"
March 2007
Enterprise, Pass Christian, Bay St.
Louis, and Poplarsville.
BonaResponds Spring Break 2007: 60 volunteers left St. Bonaventure
University on March 2nd for the Gulf Coast and has safely returned a little
over a week later. Sixty participants joined the group to rebuild and
revive the Gulf Coast from the destruction caused by Hurricanes Katrina and
Rita.
However, before making it the Gulf Coast, BonaResponds
stopped in Enterprise, Alabama to help clear downed trees and debris caused by
the tornado that hit the city on Thursday, March 1st. It was unbelievable
to see the destruction caused by the tornado and the way the local community
came together to respond to it. The entire trip was a truly rewarding
experience.
April 2007
Our first local service weekend in the spring.
Big success!
Work on Bob’s Woods commences
May 2007
Tornado wipes Greensburg, Kansas out.
BonaResponds announces trip to the region only to cancel
after further assessment deems trip unnecessary due to large number of nearby
volunteers.
Summer 2007
Local Day
First summer work day is major
success.
Have about 30 volunteers.
Two major jobs:
Olean Community Schools building and
"Johns"
Throughout the summer: regular work
days on Bob's woods cut approximately 2 miles of trails to the east of campus.
September
2007
Bradford
Two days before school started in Bradford,
PA a storm hit hard; it was later deemed to be not a tornado. High winds
brought down an estimated 500 trees across the region. After hearing the
news of the storm at 10pm, BonaResponds was working in Bradford the next
morning. While the number of volunteers was low, the effort was well
accepted. Work continued for two weekends.
New leaders and new challenges:
James Kane and Anthony Dimario had
helped establish BonaResponds as an organization with staying power, but they
had each graduated. The new school year kicked off with Carrie Jackling
and Laura McDowell being the new leaders. They quickly proved their
worthiness by helping to organize efforts in Bradford and also a local service
day right after.
October
2007
Local days
- Worked on campus (painting dugouts)
- SPCA
- Arch Bishop Walsh
- Built a wheelchair ramp for elderly women in Allegany
- Street clean up
Dedication of Bob's woods.
Fall break trip
Aided victims of flooding in Central Ohio.
Stayed at boy scout camp.
November 2007
Adoption of a family in Pass Christian
![[9_image.jpg]](history05-08_files/image079.jpg)
Fundraising initiative begins with
Goodshop.com
Bridge to Ocean Springs opens
Black Friday
Krytus family home burns. Baby
and father severely burned
Bridge to Bay St. Louis opened
December 2007
Franklinville
Art auction:
January 2008
Winter
trip ~ back to Randy’s!
-
Pass Christian MS
“Boots and clothes for trip: $100
Sleeping on cots and eating what is served: $200
Getting a heartfelt thank-you from someone you helped:
Priceless”
Spring Break Trip 2008
Major success! In spite of financial
difficulties brought about by a lack of drivers, around 63 volunteers worked in
Pearlington, Pass Christian, as well as Gassville, Arkansas.
More Spring 2008
Buffalo Service day
75 volunteers worked
Worked with City of Buffalo to help beautify and better
Buffalo.
Local Service Weekend
Faculty, students and community
members came together to improve the aesthetics in Allegany, Olean, and St.
Bonaventure campus.
Lots of work on Bob’s Woods
May
2008
Missouri
Worked with HODR Project Newton County
July
2008
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
A handful of students gave
up two weeks of their summer vacation to help immediately respond to flood
victims and their houses.
October 4, 2008
Local Service Day
St. Bonaventure University celebrate the 150th
Anniversary
Bonaventure students spend the day giving back.
This successful work day is followed by Mass, a Creole
Picnic Dinner, a New Orleans Jazz Tribute concert and Anniversary fireworks!
For more information, check out our blog or visit the
timeline page for current events, videos, pictures, and more.