Mar 31, 2006 - Claremont, Calif. -

By Whitney Buchanan '07 

During spring break March 11-19, Mudders Making a Difference (the community service club on campus) organized a service trip to New Orleans to help with damage from Hurricane Katrina.

Twenty-seven students, including 17 Mudders, two Pomona students, and six Scripps students, spent five days working for Katrina on the Ground, a local grassroots organization, helping with the clean up effort.

Most students worked on housing, gutting existing houses so they could be rebuilt, both in New Orleans and in the rural community of Plaquemines Parish. Two worked on getting a women's health clinic up and running, and two more worked on high level logistics, organizing efforts, trying to keep residents informed and working on getting a local school opened again. Upon their return, some of the students are working through the Students Solidarity Committee to ensure that displaced residents will have the opportunity to vote in their home communities.

Significant fundraising went into paying for this trip. Katrina on the Ground provided and food and housing while they were there, but the plane tickets for everyone came to $12,500, and for 25 of the 27 students who went, all but $100 apiece was paid for through fundraising. Tom Donze '08, who organized this trip, is hoping to be able to take another group of students during the summer. The goal is for a two week trip to continue the same work that they were doing this time.