Hurricane Katrina, the third strongest hurricane on record to hit the United States, made landfall on August 29 near the Louisiana-Mississippi border. News of the pervasive damage to the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas was slow in coming, but by the first week of September, the extent of the natural disaster was revealed to Americans across the nation. Today, about three weeks later, much of New Orleans remains underwater and thousands of people are still reported missing.

However, there has been an impressive outpouring of aid to the victims of the hurricane, including at Carnegie Mellon.

Some organizations, such as Sigma Phi Epsilon, have collected money during previously scheduled events and tabling. At the Labor Day barbeque, SigEp raised $500, which was met two-dollars-for-one-dollar by the Manilow Fund for Health & Hope. (See, Labor Day, a BBQing Success.)

Other organizations have set up tables to raise funds. From September 7 through 9, the Black Greek Letter Organizations raised approximately $940. The money will go to five families in New Orleans with connections to Carnegie Mellon and other local Pittsburgh schools.

"We realized there was a need from people we knew," said HSS senior Shedisha Matthias, financial secretary of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. "I wish we could have raised some more."

This past week, the Sigma Nu brothers and pledges shouted at students passing by their table in front of Doherty Hall to ask for monetary donations and clothing.  

"We have the ability to help," said HSS first-year Kevin Hung, a SigNu pledge. "[We are] giving a chance for fellow Carnegie Mellon people to help out."

The Greek Council is also sponsoring a "Dollar Challenge" today, September 21, to raise money for affected school districts. In addition to donating a cash dollar, students can donate a dollar of their DineX during the Dollar Challenge cook-out lunch.

The Asian Student Association's (ASA) Turkey Bowl, a flag-football tournament held on the Cut, was a particularly creative fundraiser. Six teams registered, and about $200 were raised. The Korean Central Church of Pittsburgh team won first place and took home a trophy and discounted admission to ASA events for the year. Hamerschlag 2B won second and discounted admission to ASA events as well.

Academic departments are also getting involved in fundraising efforts. On September 28, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences will be having a bake sale from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in front of Baker Hall. Proceeds will go to the American Red Cross.

Carnegie Mellon Service, in conjunction with a Pittsburgh nonprofit organization called the Brother's Brother Foundation, is collecting "flood buckets" and health kits, which include items such as gloves, insect repellent, and toothpaste.

While Tulane University recovers from hurricane damage, Carnegie Mellon students have also opened their dorms to Tulane students. Campus dormitories have gotten involved in other ways to contribute to Katrina relief efforts as well. Morewood E-Tower held a rummage sale, Donner House prepared a pancake breakfast, and Mudge House organized a car wash. On September 26, New House will be hosting a blood drive, and on October 7, Hamerschlag House will have a "Sausage Fest" fundraiser, in homage to a satirical article about the all-male dorm that appeared in readme.

The Sausage Fest has been rescheduled twice now, once due to rain and once due to a conflicting barbeque, which underscored the need for an organizational body to manage the various fundraising events throughout campus.

"I see support for Hurricane Katrina on campus, but the organizations seem scattered," said CIT sophomore Brandon Ash, during an informal campus meeting about Katrina on September 8.

"Hurricane Katrina was part of what destroyed New Orleans, but a bigger part was a long history of injustice, ignorance, and callousness to a large group of people," Matthew Toups, an SCS staff member and New Orleans native, said during that meeting. "When another city is hit with disaster, will we do any better? Will we essentially abandon large groups of people and entire neighborhoods?"

To address these concerns, Carnegie Mellon has formed a new body to manage the outpouring of events geared toward Katrina relief effort: Operation K.A.R.E. (Katrina Aid and Relief Effort). Despite being named after the hurricane, K.A.R.E. intends to continue functioning in the future in case of other global disasters that prompt overwhelming student involvement.

During K.A.R.E.'s first information session, CIT fifth-year Brandon Hsiung asked, "Is there a dedicated plan to overcome apathy?"

"The issue of apathy… goes a lot farther than K.A.R.E.," replied Nicolette Louissaint, Student Body Vice-President and primary contact for K.A.R.E. "That's why [intellectual empowerment] and social justice committees are so important… There's a lot to be said about getting as many student organizations and interested students together as possible."

The goal of K.A.R.E. is to reach out to student organizations and to help them collaborate with each other more effectively. By working with student organizations and the University's administration, K.A.R.E. hopes to provide extra resources to students interested in helping out and to connect organizations interested in doing similar kinds of relief work and fundraising.

"It's not another student organization," explained Louissaint at the information session. "It's a campaign campus-wide."

"Our office is serving as a resource and clearinghouse of information, activities and programs," said M. Shernell Smith, a staff member in Student Development. "There are just so many things [to do for relief] from so many different approaches."

If K.A.R.E.'s goal is realized, a website with a comprehensive list of relief activities will be created and maintained in the coming months.

For more information about how to get involved in Operation K.A.R.E. activities, contact one of the following "point people": for the steering committee, Nicolette Louissaint (sbvp@andrew.cmu.edu); for fundraising, Will Drewery (wdrewery@andrew.cmu.edu) or Kristin Hwang (skhwang@andrew.cmu.edu); for social justice, Vivake Prasad (vivakep@andrew.cmu.edu) or Matthew Toups (mtoups@andrew.cmu.edu); for student awareness and intellectual empowerment, Nelson Cheung (nmcheung@andrew.cmu.edu) or Gabriel Nehrbass (gmn@andrew.cmu.edu); for community service, Minji Kim (minjik@andrew.cmu.edu) or Nolan Kurtz (nkurtz@andrew.cmu.edu); and for public relations, Rachel Goykhman (rgoykhma@andrew.cmu.edu) or Anna Ly (akly@andrew.cmu.edu).

For more information about current campus relief activities and a full list of flood bucket and health kit items, visit http://www.studentaffairs.cmu.edu/katrina/.

The author would like to recognize Mark Cullen for his help with this article.

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