It was Saturday morning, Aug. 27, and move-in day at the Tulane University dormitories. Tulane junior and resident assistant Kevin Lander was busy helping freshmen move into their new homes.
At 11 a.m., Lander and other resident assistants learned that Tulane and the rest of New Orleans had to be evacuated before Hurricane Katrina struck. He told incoming freshmen to leave their possessions in their rooms and leave, making sure everyone was gone before he left for Houston, Texas.
\We literally moved everybody into their dorms and out in the same day,"" Lander said.
Lander's friend, Adam Hawf, worked his last day at his summer job at a New Orleans law firm the Friday before the hurricane struck. Two days later, his plans for his upcoming final year of college and law school applications took a backseat to the weather, and Hawf escaped on one of the weekend's last flights out of New Orleans.
Hawf and Lander noted they were among the city's luckier residents.
""For me and other Tulane students and faculty, it wasn't a matter of if we'd get out, but when,"" Lander said. ""But for many ... in New Orleans, evacuation is not an option.""
After the hurricane hit and the crisis for those left behind became clear, Lander, Hawf and their friends, Tulane juniors Aaron Rubens and Stephen Richer, decided to help.
NOLA HURRICANE FUND
""[Stephen] and I were talking, and we were like, 'You know, we really should try to do something for New Orleans,'"" Hawf said.
What they did was start the NOLA Hurricane Fund, a group that plans to work in a variety of ways to support relief efforts in New Orleans over the long term. The organization, which operates under a service organization at Tulane, will be run by college students and focus on ways in which students can help.
""In a year, when we're still rebuilding the city, it won't be in the news but it will be just as important as we're rebuilding people's lives,"" Lander said. ""There is a need out there for students to be able to channel their efforts. ... We are going to be there long after the Red Cross volunteers. We are committed to the city.""
Initially, the group will work to support Tulane Emergency Medical Services students with money and supplies. TEMS provides Tulane and the surrounding neighborhood with emergency medical care, and many student emergency medical technicians stayed in New Orleans to help the rescue effort.
Rubens, an EMT who was not in New Orleans because he was preparing to study abroad, said the limited communication he is able to receive from fellow EMTs indicates they are running low on funding and supplies.
Eventually, the group plans to work toward rebuilding New Orleans and the lives of its residents. Among their ideas are sponsoring families, providing support for a New Orleans elementary school where three of the founders had volunteered and organizing service trips that groups of college students can take to New Orleans.
So far, group members say they have received a lot of support from other students. Tulane e-mail service has been shut down and many phones with 504 area codes have not been working, Lander said. This makes it difficult to spread the word among Tulane students, but many students have started to contact the NOLA Hurricane Fund.
OTHER SCHOOLS
Student groups at campuses across the country have already begun to raise money for the Hurricane Fund, Hawf said, noting that a group of students at Wellesley raised $700 over Labor Day weekend and students at Emory in Atlanta, Ga. were planning to hold a Mardi Gras-themed fundraising party.
The Hurricane Fund also raises money through their website, www.nolahurricanefund.org. Lander said he plans to visit college campuses to raise money. At the University of Michigan football game this Saturday, he will sell T-shirts that say ""Ohio State sucks, but hurricanes blow.""
Though the founders are currently trying to coordinate efforts between their homes in Utah, Missouri and Michigan, they eventually hope to reunite and work from New Orleans.
""For a lot of people, New Orleans didn't mean anything two years ago. ... Everyone watching this is horrified,"" Lander said. ""For us now, it's become way more than that. We volunteer, we work in the city, we do everything in the city.""
Including, as soon as possible, a return to the city. Tulane canceled its fall semester, and though many schools across the country have extended invitations to students displaced by the hurricane, Richer, Lander and Hawf decided not to enroll anywhere else. Rubens canceled his plans to study abroad at the London School of Economics. All four plan to spend this fall working on the NOLA.
""It's been amazing-the response from other universities around the country ... but for the four of us and many others that I've talked to, our hearts are in New Orleans,"" Lander said.
