More than 100 students from six Penn State campuses spent spring break in Texas, cleaning out homes that were damaged by Hurricane Harvey. "It's easy to repair a house," one said. "It's not as easy to put a home back together."
Penn State York students participating in an alternative spring break this week in Texas have shared a few photos as their experience is coming to a close. The York group, consisting of 10 students and two chaperones, joined students and staff from five other Penn State campuses for a week of disaster-relief work in areas ravaged by Hurricane Harvey.
The Business Club at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus collected several carloads of goods during a campus drive for Hurricane Harvey victims, culminating on Sept. 22.
University officials are continuing to reach out to students from the areas impacted by Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Harvey and offering to connect them to Penn State’s student support services.
Hurricane Harvey brought devastation to Houston, Texas, and many other towns along the Gulf Coast. For Dan Puccio, associate direct of student affairs at Penn State York, the photos on the news and social media reminded him of the catastrophic loss in New Orleans, a place he used to live and work. Although he wasn’t in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, Puccio remembers seeing the impact on that city and its residents years later. Those memories, shared with him by friends and colleagues who lived through Katrina, inspired him to do something.
Penn State students are collaborating on a disaster relief effort to aid those in Texas affected by Hurricane Harvey. Toiletries, towels and blankets are being accepted in the lobby area of the Paul Robeson Cultural Center, located in the HUB-Robeson Center, for the next two weeks.
