Students from Tusculum College got a personal view into the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina and the resiliency of its victims during a recent trip to the gulf coast of Mississippi to provide help to that area.

A group of 11 traveled to Gulfport, Mississippi on Sunday, Oct. 23 and after three days of strenuous, intense labor headed back toward Tusculum with lessons learned about life and the resiliency of people.

"I never had a class work as hard for long as we did and still have fun," said the course instructor Robin Fife about the students during a presentation about the trip. "We accomplished a lot, and I appreciate all the work they did and their diligence."

"We tried to be a shoulder for them to cry on," said Felix Perez as he described he and his fellow students experiences in Gulfport. "We helped them do anything that needed to be done. We raked leaves, put up dry wall, and 'mucked' out a house - that's what they called stripping a house of damaged materials. The devastation is something that we'll never forget."

The students and Fife worked with the Westminister Presbyterian Church in Gulfport to help assist members of the church with their needs and were lodged at the church during their stay. "The church was not damaged although buildings all around it were, so the church felt that it had been blessed for a purpose and opened the church to groups coming down to assist victims like ours," Fife explained.

Church members brought food for the meals of the volunteers staying at the church, she added, although "these were folks who had lost their homes too. There were church members in and out of the church during the day. It has become a life support for them."

On the first day, the students were sent to the home of Catherine Martin, a retired nurse to "muck" it out. What they found were rooms filled with furniture, appliances, and other furnishings in a jumbled mess in the floor and a "horrible smell" from rotting materials and the mold that covered many surfaces within the house. Ten foot of water had filled the home, picked up everything inside and then left things to crash back down as it receded.

The volunteer from the church who accompanied the group to the house called it the worst case he had seen because the structure had not been opened in two months since the hurricane, Melina Villarreal noted. With the help of the volunteer, the Tusculum group "became immersed in quite an experience of carrying out to the curb for pick up, Ms. Martin's life belongings and cleaning the house of its extremely rancid, water-soaked interior," she continued.

All that was able to be salvaged from the lady's possessions would not have filled the bed of a pick-up truck, the students said. "It was heartbreaking to see that was all that someone has left from a lifetime," said Amanda Davis who helped the retiree clean up the salvaged items. "When the trucks would come by to pick up what had been destroyed, she couldn't look at it."

On their second day, the students divided into two groups. One group went to the home of a couple, the Poormans, to help in another "mucking" out. The basement of the home was completely flooded and the water rose to four feet in the upper level of the house. The students there cleaned out the debris from the basement. The other group traveled to a home to install drywall.

On their next day, the students again divided into two groups. One group went to the home of an elderly couple, the Simpsons, whose home had not sustained any major damage, but their yard had been filled with leaves and debris from trees. The students raked the leaves and cleaned the yard. This couple were impeccable housekeepers and were really disturbed that the yard was in a mess, but weren't able to clean it themselves and were really appreciative, the students noted.

The other group returned to the home where they were installing drywall the previous day. The original goal was to finish two rooms, but the students were able to install drywall throughout the entire house.

Mat Galens said the students learned several lessons from their experience. "Don't take anything for granted because it could be gone in an instant," he said, and "even a small group can make a big difference." There was a group of 45 students from another college working with the church and it took them two days to "muck" out a house, it was noted.

"Things are replaceable, but memories aren't," Galens continued. "We gained a great respect for the resilient attitude that the people had."

The students also learned how to work as a team. "I was cynical about us becoming a team," said Missy Vandyke "But, we came together and accomplished our goals."

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