Posted 8:49 p.m. Thursday, May 26, 2011
Five UW-L students took a road trip May 16-21 to Tuscaloosa to help with relief efforts after the city was struck by a mile-wide tornado April 27.
[caption id="attachment_3152" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Submitted photo. Home destroyed in Tuscaloosa, Ala."]
[/caption]Five UW-La Crosse students were silent as they drove into the neighborhoods of Tuscaloosa, Ala. earlier this May. They saw leveled homes, roofs stripped from buildings and uprooted trees.
“It looked like a house was put in a blender and dumped back out,” explains UW-L student Emily Masters. “The destruction was unlike anything I’d ever seen.”
The five took a road trip May 16-21 to Tuscaloosa to help with relief efforts after the city was struck by a mile-wide tornado April 27— one of many southern cities to suffer destruction and death from the storms. Student Hannah Mixdorf had the idea and connections to Tuscaloosa from previous service work in the city.
“We’d heard news of what was going on and the amount of damage,” says Mixdorf. “When we got there it was nothing like we expected. It was a lot worse.”
Throughout the week they helped with distribution of goods at a church and warehouse and helped clean up damaged neighborhoods.
The students had just wrapped up classes and hadn’t yet started summer jobs. Student Betsy Collins had planned to return home to Janesville, Wis., but changed her mind when she heard a fellow student talking about helping out tornado-ravaged Tuscaloosa.
“I felt there was more purpose helping someone there than going home,” she notes.
The students say seeing that type of destruction puts things in perspective.
“I absolutely love service trips,” says Masters. “It’s one thing to go on vacation and have fun for yourself. But the experience of going and helping people is so much more fulfilling. It’s a different kind of feeling coming home when you know other people have appreciated what you’ve done.”
[/caption]Five UW-La Crosse students were silent as they drove into the neighborhoods of Tuscaloosa, Ala. earlier this May. They saw leveled homes, roofs stripped from buildings and uprooted trees.
“It looked like a house was put in a blender and dumped back out,” explains UW-L student Emily Masters. “The destruction was unlike anything I’d ever seen.”
The five took a road trip May 16-21 to Tuscaloosa to help with relief efforts after the city was struck by a mile-wide tornado April 27— one of many southern cities to suffer destruction and death from the storms. Student Hannah Mixdorf had the idea and connections to Tuscaloosa from previous service work in the city.
“We’d heard news of what was going on and the amount of damage,” says Mixdorf. “When we got there it was nothing like we expected. It was a lot worse.”
Throughout the week they helped with distribution of goods at a church and warehouse and helped clean up damaged neighborhoods.
The students had just wrapped up classes and hadn’t yet started summer jobs. Student Betsy Collins had planned to return home to Janesville, Wis., but changed her mind when she heard a fellow student talking about helping out tornado-ravaged Tuscaloosa.
“I felt there was more purpose helping someone there than going home,” she notes.
The students say seeing that type of destruction puts things in perspective.
“I absolutely love service trips,” says Masters. “It’s one thing to go on vacation and have fun for yourself. But the experience of going and helping people is so much more fulfilling. It’s a different kind of feeling coming home when you know other people have appreciated what you’ve done.”