Over Spring Break, seven RPI students from the Phi Kappa Theta fraternity went on a road trip to Waveland, Miss., to help rebuild a home destroyed by Hurricane Katrina and to coordinate an after-school program in a poor community. Alexander Marcus ’09 created Phi Kaps Rebuild by teaming up with Mark Bertrand, founder of The Giving Circle, Inc., a Saratoga-based nonprofit organization that helps families around the country affected by natural disasters. Marcus recruited Adam Jankauskas ’10, Frank Regan ’09, Allen Marden ’10, Andrew Tsang ’09, Rohan Agrawal ’10, and Ryan Railton ’09 to help him with the operation.
Waveland, Miss., is located in Hancock County, which is the most financially disadvantaged county in the poorest state in the United States. A storm surge of approximately 30 feet had struck the area before any of the serious winds came in. The surge and storm itself destroyed over 95 percent of all homes, buildings, and infrastructure in the area, making it ground zero for Hurricane Katrina. After the hurricane, the little money the families received—mostly in the form of insurance or state aid—was put to rebuilding their homes. The contractors would finish just enough of the house to ask for full payment—maybe 30 percent—and then leave. Families, just like the one the volunteers went down to help, were left with a Mississippi Emergency Management Agency and Federal Emergency Management Agency trailer and an unfinished house. These trailers are not permanent living quarters and many contain high levels of formaldehyde, which can be toxic to residents. The only place these families have to reside is these trailers, and now MEMA/FEMA is taking them away, leaving families with nowhere to go.
While in Mississippi, the students helped the Wimbish family, consisting of a grandfather, his son, wife, and their two children, Alyssa, 6, and Brennan, 9. “When we got to the house, it was completely gutted out, filled with mold, and had only a small part of the electrical work finished,” said Marcus. For the remainder of the week, they finished most of the dry wall and insulation work, retiled a bathroom, re-fortified the house to protect against hurricane force winds, and fixed the exterior paneling. For their work, the students were featured in a news piece by WLOX-TV and a radio talk show by WQLX Katrina radio.
The students also visited with a community who will be receiving an after-school program building from The Giving Circle. Middletown—a part of Waveland where less than 1 percent of children make it to college—will be coordinating with students from RPI and Skidmore College to help design the program. The RPI students will be designing and assisting with the building process itself, and the Skidmore students will be developing the activities to be run within the building.
“I started [http://www.phikapsrebuild.com/] to help increase awareness and allow our family and friends to join in on our experience down in Mississippi,” said Marcus. Through the website they received over $1,300 in donations to fund a majority of their trip and were able to give over $600 in donations to the family and The Giving Circle itself. Marcus is starting a club called The Giving Circle at RPI, which will promote awareness of communities that have been affected by natural disasters and coordinate volunteers to make trips to help rebuild. “We would like to thank our families and friends for all the support and donations, especially the RPI Finance Department and Mark Bertrand of The Giving Circle,” Marden said.
The next trip, which is scheduled for late May after graduation, will focus on the after-school program building and possibly another home. Those interested in the trip or club should contact Marcus at marcua2@rpi.edu.
