Students Gather Supplies for Hurricane Victims

September 7, 2005

Duke Divinity School students, led by the Basin and Towel Ministry Team, are organizing two efforts to bring sorely needed supplies to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. In each case, students are asking for support from the entire university and anyone else wishing to make donations.

Basin and Towel is a student-run organization that focuses on community outreach and the scriptural call to social justice and compassion.

On Sept. 7 and Sept. 8 (until noon), students seek donations of insect repellant and water-proof roofing tarps. These will be delivered to Court Street United Methodist Church in Hattiesburg, Miss., on the night of Sept. 8. The church, which has provided numerous mentoring and other learning opportunities for divinity students through the school’s Teaching Congregations program, has been named an official distribution center for relief supplies.

Basin and Towel asks for donations of these supplies to be brought to the divinity school’s student lounge. The school is located at 2 Chapel Drive, next to Duke Chapel.

Cash donations, which will be used to buy more supplies, may be made to Joey Shelton, the school’s co-director of field education and church relations. These donations should be brought to 105 Westbrook Building in the divinity school by noon on Sept. 8.

In another effort, Basin and Towel is working with the United Methodist Committee on Relief to gather materials for health kits and cleaning kits. These kits are simple packages of materials that will help flood victims maintain their health and uphold basic sanitation.

Items needed include hand towels, bath soap (in its original wrapper), washcloths, adhesive plastic bandages, tooth brushes, full-size tubes of toothpaste, five-gallon buckets with re-sealable lids, one-quart or 82-oz. bottles of bleach, disinfectant dish soap, liquid laundry detergent, sponges, scouring pads, heavy duty trash bags (33-45 gallon) and insect repellant spray.

Basin and Towel asks for these supplies to be delivered to the school’s student lounge by Sept. 16. Students will deliver the supplies to a distribution point in Goldsboro, N.C. and work with other volunteers (more are still needed) to help assemble the kits.

Will Zant, a member of the organization’s leadership team, said the collection efforts offer the community an opportunity to contribute to hurricane relief in a simple, concrete way.

“People can make a small contribution that will really help,” he said. “This also is a tangible, pastoral response to God’s people who are in need.”

For details about donations of supplies or to volunteer to help, contact Zant at 919-613-0932 or wz6@duke.edu. For details about making a cash donation, contact Shelton at 919-660-3440. For details about the full United Methodist Committee on Relief response to the hurricane, please visit: http://gbgm-umc.org/umcor/.