Lipscomb serves as Red Cross shelter site
Kim Chaudoin |
Shelter coordinator Arthur Roger Abramson said around 3,000 people were housed in Red Cross shelters as of Monday morning, but more people were arriving on Tuesday and even a few more on Wednesday.
All the Nashville shelters were run by local volunteers (without having to import volunteers), thanks to a city-wide effort to recruit and train up to 10,000 emergency first responders, Abramson said.
As of Tuesday, when the students returned from Labor Day break, more than 25 students had signed up to volunteer at the shelter, manning the registration desk, playing with children and keeping things clean and organized. Lipscomb also volunteered to provide meals as well as the shelter space for the evacuees staying on campus.
The Red Cross shelter managers assigned to Lipscomb, who have operated emergency shelters on numerous occasions, both commented on how extremely impressed they are with Lipscomb students and employees, with their attitudes and their willingness to serve, said Walt leaver, Lipscomb vice president of university relations and Lipscomb's coordinator of the shelter activities.
These Red Cross managers report that our guests and the Red Cross staff have had many positive experiences during the past few days, and they’ve even "gotten spoiled” while here, he said. They say our “students are amazing, working at all hours of the day and night" happily doing whatever needs to be done, leaver said.
Faculty and staff members are also providing incredible service, Leaver said. Many of the meals are being donated by Sodexho and area restaurants such as Dairy King, Jim N Nick's, Panera Bread, Copper Kettle, Chick-fil-A and Starbucks.
Among the evacuees at Lipscomb was an extended family of 20 from the New Orleans and Hammond, La., areas. Brenda Campbell, the matriarch of the family and a Reverend in the Butler African Methodist Church, had had surgery just one week prior to evacuation, so she was doubly grateful to have a place to continue her recovery with power, water and food.
“It may not have been as bad as we anticipated, but you can’t take any chances,” said Campbell, who evacuated for Hurricane Katrina three years ago as well. “God told Noah to warn his people… and obedience is better than sacrifice.”
The shelter provides residents with meals, showers, cots and blankets, medical care, mental counseling and needed medications. Abramson, who has coordinated shelters for floods, fires and the Sept. 11 disaster during his 20-year career as a volunteer, said Lipscomb was doing a great job of providing all the necessities.
“In a very tangible way, we have the opportunity to practice the ethic of Matthew 25, ‘I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was a stranger and you invited me in...,’” said Lipscomb President L. Randolph Lowry.The Red Cross is expected to announce today when the Red Cross shelters will be closed, as Gulf residents will soon be allowed to go back home.