The team for the spring break service trip to the Gulf Coast has been selected. Efe Foster will be the student leader of the trip and Sandi Cleveland will be the staff advisor. The team of 12 total will travel to the exact same sites as the winter break team.
Funded by the Parents Association, Summer Service Grants will help offset the travel and living expenses for students that want to spend the summer volunteering on the Gulf Coast. Contact Lauren Grainger at lugrai@wm.edu for more information.
In the grand scheme, the impact of 12 muck-slinging, wallboard-ripping William and Mary representatives who spent one week during their winter break to volunteer in the Gulf Coast cleanup may have been minimal. For individuals who were assisted, however, the students’ contributions put lives back together.
The contingent, comprising 10 students and two staff members, was the first of numerous teams the College’s Project Relief organizers plan to send to the region. Funded, in part, by a gift from the William and Mary Parents Association, members traveled to New Orleans, where they scrubbed, bleached and painted public school buildings scheduled to open in January, and to Bay St. Louis, Miss., where they gutted private dwellings uninhabited since the storm.
After raising almost $45,000 for the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund in response to Hurricane Katrina, Project Relief is now shifting gears away from fundraising to work on both collecting goods for areas affected by the hurricane, and also planning direct service trips to the Gulf Coast area. A campus-wide school supply drive for a New Orleans-area school is being planned and will begin shortly. The first service trip to the area will occured in January over Winter Break, and a second is planned for Spring Break. There will be grant money available for students to travel to the Gulf Coast to volunteer for the summer.
Welcome to the website of Project Relief, William & Mary's on-campus effort to aid the victims of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. All student activities and volunteer opportunities that will benefit the relief effort will be listed here. Right now, we're just getting off the ground, so check back in the future, as we will be continually adding more events and opportunities. Any additions or updates to this website will be listed here.
Our current fundraising total is over $44,337! Thanks to all who have donated and volunteered! (Updated 10/17)