On August 28, Hurricane Katrina was preparing to make landfall in the Gulf Coast. Elsewhere around the country, college students were buying books, highlighters, and cases of beer, preparing for the beginning of classes.
By the next day, the storm had ripped the roof off of the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, a shelter of last resort for Louisiana residents. The tens of thousands people Katrina had sent stumbling to the emergency shelter had to move once again, this time to Houston.
More than 1,400 miles away in New York City, Josh Grossberg decided it was time to move, too. Grossberg, along with seven other students and two staff members from New York University Hillel at the Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life flew out to the area so many were trying to flee. “There was no question. I had to go,” Grossberg said.
While Grossberg said he doesn’t consider himself an observant Jew, he said he identified with the Jewish value of tikun olam, making the world a better place. “I always feel like a Jew is not a Jew unless he acts like one,” Grossberg said.
From September 4 to 6, the volunteers worked long days and nights, sleeping only a few hours at a time at the Rice University Hillel in Houston.
Without their homes or jobs, many displaced adults in the shelters didn’t seem to know what to do, said NYU sophomore Max Orenstein. The kids, on the other hand, simply continued to play. Despite the overwhelming despair and creeping boredom, there was also a lot of hope. In the Astrodome, a 100-person strong gospel choir was formed. “They were really overpowering,” said Max.
Some volunteers handed out food and water, or helped to distribute clothing and shoes to “shoppers,” evacuees who came to a large warehouse in search of vital supplies. Others used computer software to help families reunite with loved ones.
But what the evacuees seemed to need just as much as a ration of food and water was sympathetic ear, said sophomore Jill Goldstein. “We realized it was very therapeutic for people just to tell their stories. It was just as important to them as getting clean clothing and warm food.”
While the trip meant the students were missing the first day of class, it was nothing short of a learning experience. Grossberg, a graduate student pursuing an interdisciplinary masters degree in history and screen writing, was doing some filming and history making of his own. He, along with Goldstein, a broadcast journalism major, and NYU law student David Yaroslavsky realized that one of the best ways they could help those devastated by the storm was to document their stories. They created a film chronicling the hopes, feelings and frustrations of the evacuees and the NYU volunteers. Some of the footage was aired on MTVu, a Music Television channel aimed at college students, Goldstein said.
The team paired up with a crisis counselor and other volunteers to find housing for several evacuees.
Even after settling in back in New York, Grossberg still checks up on his new friends. Last week he visited the group in their temporary housing in Plantation, FL. “They’re like family now,” he said. Thanks to the kindness of strangers, several have found jobs and free apartments.
Grossberg’s continued correspondence with the evacuees whom he helped will be part of a new documentary about the experience that he plans to complete in the next several weeks.
As NYU Hillel’s Social Action chairwoman, Goldstein said that her mission was about much more than the hours she spent with the evacuees. It was about reporting the experience to the NYU community so that they could be better equipped to respond, she said.
“I wanted to be able to help efforts on campus to be more effective so that students wouldn’t become apathetic so quickly like after the tsunami,” Goldstein said.
Goldstein said the Bronfman Center is planning a Solidarity Jazz Fest and selling Mardi Gras beads to raise money for relief efforts. While big events get the word out, the most effective thing she’s done, Goldstein said, is just discussing her experience with friends. “I talk to people for half hour sometimes right off the street when really all they wanted to hear was “It was good,” she said. “There’s no way to do it justice without really telling the stories of courage that I heard.”
She pointed out a couple areas where could help: “There are families that are relocated and are going to need things like furniture. Children need school uniforms. Kids who have transferred to schools in Baton Rouge and Houston right now are the only kids in their classes that aren’t wearing red and blue polo shirts and khakis.”
Next month families will need Thanksgiving dinners. Then it’s on to holiday gifts. While college students may not be able to offer a lot of financial support, there is still plenty they can do, such as holding a benefit concert or joining an Alternative Spring Break project. Even writing letters of support to students in affected area shows you care, she said.
