By Sarah Carlson, Arts Editor

The university community raised $5,001.18 in Chapel on Tuesday to be given to relief efforts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and more than 300 evacuees are expected to arrive in Abilene during the next few days.

The empty Wal-Mart store on Judge Ely Boulevard is being cleaned out and prepared to initially house the refugees while they can be screened for health, psychological and spiritual issues, if they have children and a basic of record of who they are and where they are from, said Dr. Wayne Barnard, dean of Campus Life. Already, more than 100 students have been selected as captains to lead teams of 20 people to work in shifts in helping the city and the university prepare for the evacuees. Those interested in joining a team can contact the Volunteer and Service-Learning Center in the Bean Sprout.

Barnard said he was not surprised at the response from students and community members to help in the relief effort.

“Students are always gripped by the kind of tragedy they see and want to help,” Barnard said. “That’s true of a lot of this age group but it’s certainly true of ACU students, so I’m not at all surprised.”

Students can continue to donate money by leaving cash or checks made out to ACU in the SA office, or by going online to www.acu.edu/hurricanekatrina, where a special donation page has been set up.

Melanie Booker, senior political science major from Sugarland and vice president of the Students’ Association, said the amount given in Chapel on Tuesday was more than what they collected in Chapel for the Haiti disaster relief in October 2004 and that she thought the turnout was fantastic, adding she’s been impressed with the university’s response to the hurricane.

Booker said it is important for students to remember that the relief efforts will last months and even years, so they should continue to donate and help when they can.

“This is going to be a long-term need, and we shouldn’t just give this week and then forget about it,” Booker said. “We need people to continue to give and volunteer throughout the semester and actually throughout the year.”

Tentative plans are already being made for Weekend Campaign trips and a week-long campaign the week after finals in December to cities in Texas with large amounts of refugees as well as New Orleans and areas in Mississippi and Alabama affected by the hurricane.

“We just want to be ready,” Barnard said. “We don’t know when they’ll be ready for us in New Orleans or even some of the other Southern cities with churches, but we want to be ready, so those [trips] could happen. Everything is a contingency plan just to be ready right now. If students want to do something beyond praying and raising money, and perhaps a clothing drive, this is something we can have organized and ready and go when we are needed.”

However, Barnard said students should not attempt to go to the affected areas for relief efforts yet because the areas are still unsafe and are not ready to receive extra volunteers. Students who have already made the trip are connected with the area and have places to stay, so they are not in people’s way, Barnard said. When churches are ready for outside physical help, then students will be able to mobilize, he said.

For now, the priority is preparing the displaced families seeking refuge in Abilene, Barnard said. ARAMARK has agreed to feed people for up to three months and churches citywide are collecting money to donate. Both Sherrod and University Park apartments can potentially be used to house evacuees, along with other places in the city.

“I think it’s going to be really intensive the first year,” Barnard said. “I think that the danger that happens is that people become somewhat complacent – it’s old news – and I think we forget. So one of the things that we need to do is to keep people remembering and understand that it’s just not going to go away – it’s that big.

“We’ll watch the cleanup in New Orleans over the next several years, but in addition to that, we’ve got families that are displaced, and that’s not just going to go away in a matter of weeks.”