Newswise — The words "spring break" conjure up visions of scantily dressed girls gone wild on a Florida beach.
For three dozen Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis students headed south next month, "spring break" will mean time spent cleaning up the devastation of nature gone mad.
They, along with three IUPUI faculty and staff, will spend March 10 " 16, 2006, helping residents in and around one small Mississippi town to rebuild their lives after being among the hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina.
As the six-month anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches, the national media continues to focus on disaster relief and rebuilding efforts in New Orleans, said Hayward Guenard, who is spearheading the IUPUI Alternative Spring Break trip.
Not much is said about the devastation in smaller coastal communities such as Waveland, Miss., and the nearby towns of Pass Christian and Bay St. Louis. Although the nation's focus has been on New Orleans, Waveland, located about 51 miles northeast of New Orleans, and other small cities "are worse off," Guenard said.
Waveland" which was almost obliterated by the August 29, 2005, hurricane " is home for Guenard, director of the Office of Housing and Residence Life at IUPUI. The spring break visit will be his sixth trip to his hometown to help his family and others recover from the aftermath of Katrina's 125-mph winds and 30-foot tidal surge.
In Waveland, population 7,000, only 35 homes were considered "habitable" after the hurricane. Almost 60 percent of the residents have returned to the community, most living in FEMA-supplied trailers, the IUPUI administrator said.
His mother and her neighbors are actually among the "lucky" ones, Guenard said. Of the 35 homes left standing, about 15 of them were on his mother's street.
Working under the direction of the Morrell Foundation, a Salt Lake City-based relief organization, the IUPUI volunteers will help with clean-up, which is still on-going.They will also continue a working partnership established between previous IUPUI volunteers and a Mississippi church.
"The recovery is still slow," Guenard said. Not much has changed in and around Waveland in the six months since Katrina hit, said Guenard, adding that reconstruction has been hampered by a shortage of skilled laborers and the cost of building supplies. "In Indianapolis, a 4 by 12 sheet of drywall is $11, in Mississippi, it's $18," the IUPUI administrator said.
In addition to volunteering time and energy, Guenard and others at IUPUI have helped raise $10,000 for relief efforts. Part of that money will be used to provide food for the students and supplies for their work projects during the upcoming trip.
F. A. Wilheim Construction Co. Inc., which built the apartment-style student housing complex that opened on the IUPUI campus in 2004, has been a major corporate donor to the fundraising effort.
In keeping with traditional "spring break" spirit, each student volunteer will pitch in $20 to cover gas for the spring break trip.
Students have attended an orientation session as preparation for their trip to Mississippi.
Part of the "training" includes watching a DVD that chronicles previous relief trips by IUPUI students and staff. The DVD includes "before" and "after" photographs of buildings laid waste by the hurricane.
Guenard admits the orientation session is understandably inadequate.
"Nothing prepares you for what it is like when you get there," he said. "Imagine driving from IUPUI to Avon, (Ind., about 10 miles) and there's not one thing standing," Guenard said. "It's incomprehensible."
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