Clemson University students to help out in Alabama
May 12, 2011
CLEMSON, SC – May 12, 2011 – A group of students from Clemson University is starting the summer with a trip to Birmingham, Ala., to help with disaster relief efforts following the devastating storms that swept through the state at the end of April.
Thirty students, faculty and staff members will travel to Birmingham May 15-18 to lend a hand. They will work with the Birmingham Dream Center removing debris, preparing and serving food for storm victims and relief workers and sorting through donations at the Christian Services Mission donation center.
The trip is being organized by Clemson University’s Gantt Center for Student Life and the Alternative Break Program, a student organization that organizes service trips for fall and spring breaks.
“We’ll be getting in there right after the storms so we can have a direct impact,” said Nancy Thomas, senior biological sciences major from Beaufort and president of Alternative Break Program. “I’ve gone on other trips in the past to help areas such as New Orleans, but it was years after the disaster and the needs were different.”
“I just want to go help because I would hope someone else would do the same for us, if the situation were reversed,” said Summer Borelli, a senior biological sciences major from Jackson, N.J., who also is going on the trip.
Thomas said this disaster hits close to home for a lot of students because the same storm system passed right by Upstate South Carolina.
Megan Brock, a sophomore communication studies major from Asheville, N.C., and her mother, Diana, also plan to go on the trip. It is the first time the pair has gone on a service trip together.
“I lived in Missouri during junior high and high school and lived through some tornadoes and experienced the devastation they can cause,” Diana Brock said. “Megan has several former teammates from high school that now swim at University of Alabama. She was very concerned for their safety during and after the tornado that went through Tuscaloosa.”
Dawson Baptist Church in Birmingham has agreed to host the students and provide them with lodging.
