RVCC Service Learning Homeland Security Project - STUDENT WORK

Raritan Valley Community College
Student Nurses Association
Hurricane Katrina Relief Project for Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College
Fall 2005- Spring 2006
- submitted by Gerald Driandrea, Tara Cody, Jamie Lenox, Nancy Pucci, Jane Xingjian Mao – Student Nurse Association Officers. Faculty Advisor, Susan Williams

Journal

Week of 9/17/05
Started choosing a nursing school to help, which was affected by Hurricane Katrina. Received an e-mail about the MGCCC asking for help. We were going to go with a school that a class mate attended, but it was already in good shape. We decided to go with MGCCC.

Week of 9/26/05
SNA contact Dr. Judith Benvenutti of MGCCC; we were told that they had 1046 nursing students. If we were to make a donation of money it would have to be in the form of a scholarship to which all students of MGCCC would be eligible. Since we wanted to help the nursing students and not just one nursing student we inquired as to how else we could help. We were told that they were in desperate need of supplies, such as book bags, pens, pencils, notebooks, ect…. We contacted Merck, Ethicon, and J&J asking for their help in supplying us with bags, pens, pencils; at this point we were waiting on call backs.

Week of 10/31/05
Contacted Albert Licata who is the head of The Chamber of Commerce in Bernards Township. He said he would put the word out to the local businesses and try to aid us in collecting supplies.

Week of 11/7/05
Made an announcement to the nursing students that we would be placing a box in the nursing office where they could drop off any supplies to aid in this effort, also posted it on the RVCC web page.

Week of 11/14/05
We were contacted by Ethicon and Merck telling us that they were already helping with Hurricane Katrina in their own way, and that they could not help us, but wished us well on our endeavor. We contacted Staples to see if they could help us.

Week of 11/21/05
Staples Corporate office contacted us and told us they were already participating in efforts to help out the victims of Hurricane Katrina and that they would be unable to help us. Contacted the RVCC bookstore to see if they would be able to donate any supplies to MGCCC, to which they were very receptive. The Golden Lions bookstore donated many notebooks and binders. The college students have been very receptive, and the box in the nursing office is filling up with supplies.

Week of 12/5/05
Contacted JFK, Muhlenberg, and Hunterdon Medical Center to see if they would donate any promotional bags or pens to the MGCCC. Once again we were told that they were already involved in their own relief efforts, and that they were sorry, but they would not be able to help us. Tried to contact J&J for update.

Week of 12/12/05
Started to look into shipping information, because we wanted to get these supplies to them in time for the start of the semester. We found out that the shipping costs would be out of pocket, but that we could receive reimbursement

Week of 12/26/05
SNA members gathered at the school to package all the items we collected, and shipped 6 boxes of supplies to Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.

Week of 1/30/06
Received a thank you letter from Dr. Judith Benvenutti

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