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Volunteer college students trade in books for hammers
By Ashley Sanders -The News staff writer

Posted: 12/15/05 - 10:03:25 pm CST

CAPTION: Guiseppe Barranco/The News Atena Lodhi (front), Angela Asprec (left) and Jeanne Lee work to help rebuild railing for a deck at a Port Arthur home. The girls are medical students from the University of Illinois at Chicago who are spending part of their Christmas break lending a hand.

Paying their own travel expenses and sacrificing their holiday breaks, five young college students from Chicago have come to the rescue of Southeast Texans - offering their assistance where ever they go.

“We are with the New Life Volunteer Society,” Tiffany France, a pre-med student at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said. “We wanted to come down here and make a presence and help out after having heard about all the damage that has occurred.”

Despite the scattered showers that washed over Southeast Texas Wednesday, the team of young women erected a railing on a residential porch and installed insulation in a family home.

“We worked on a fence yesterday,” France said. “It was tough. We had a hard time pulling up the posts because they were buried in cement and large shells.”

Atena Lodhi, another UIC student, said the girls dug the poles up by hand, but added they came out pretty lucky - not one blister.

Leading the group of young women, ranging in ages 18-21, John Cartwright, a foreman out of Humble, said he couldn't have asked for a group of more dedicated volunteers.

“When I got this assignment from our national office out of Indianapolis, I was told I would be working with five to seven brawny men,” Cartwright joked. “Seriously, they are a good group of girls.”

With no prior construction experience, the young college students confessed it has been an eye opening experience learning to drive nails and fashion railings out of rough wood.

“It's been hard work,” France admitted. “But, it's been good for us.”

Stationed in the area for only one week, the young women will depart Sunday - taking with them the satisfaction of bringing aide to families in need of hurricane repairs.

Volunteers find haven at local churches

Helping their community during a time of need, Central Baptist Church and First Christian Church, both of Port Arthur, have sponsored the throngs of volunteers who have come into the area offering assistance - including the recent batch of college students.

“We have been eating dinner and sleeping at Central Baptist Church,” France said. “We eat breakfast at First Christian, and they also prepare us sack lunches.”

The two church organizations also supply the building materials and names of those in need of repairs for the projects.

“When the hurricane came through, we wanted to do something to help our church members get on their feet,” Scott Miller, associate minister for First Christian Church said. “Now it has turned into helping all members of the community.”

Miller added that this was the first undertaking of this kind for his church.

“We have really never done anything like this before,” he said. “The Disciples of Christ main office in Indianapolis really helped get all this started.”

According to Miller, the Disciples of Christ has six mission centers stationed throughout the Gulf Coast to provide aide for hurricane victims.

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