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January 21, 2006
Students to help with hurricane relief effortsTeens to embark on seven-day mission todayTRAVERSE CITY - Michelle Benson saw a slide show of devastation Hurricane Katrina left along the Gulf Coast, but she knows seeing it with her own eyes will be an entirely different story."I don't really know what I'm expecting or not," said Benson, a junior at Traverse City Christian School. She's scheduled to leave Traverse City today for a seven-day mission project in Moss Point, Miss. Benson is among 118 Traverse City Christian students - close to the school's entire student body - traveling to Moss Point to help with ongoing relief efforts. They and about 20 adults were to load onto three charter buses for a 22-hour ride south. Principal Patrick Rode said persistent images of devastation along the Gulf Coast inspired the idea for a relief effort. "We could send things, but I thought, 'That's too easy,'" he said. Rode instead proposed scrapping midterm exams to teach his 7th- through 12th-graders a different lesson. "We looked around and started calling, and Moss Point popped up out of that," he said. Temple Baptist Church in Moss Point will host the group. The Traverse City contingent will arrive armed with sleeping bags and work clothes and head to a variety of work sites to paint, clean and replace drywall and roofing. Parents and volunteers with construction experience will lead the work crews. Moss Point, located about 12 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico, flooded when Katrina came ashore Aug. 29. The community of 15,851 wasn't hit as hard as some other coastal cities, but the storm still did plenty of damage. The Traverse City Christian troupe won't be the first to travel to aid Moss Point's relief efforts, but Rode said he believes it's one of the largest groups of volunteers of this age group. Students helped raise about $38,000 to pay for the trip and buy about $10,000 worth of building supplies and other necessary items. A recent spaghetti dinner brought in about $5,000, and each student sold seven shares in the trip at a cost of $25 each. "Every kid has raised the money," Rode said. "People have also given us gifts, anywhere from $10 to a couple thousand dollars." The volunteers will return Jan. 28, and Rode knows they'll come back with a fresh perspective. "They're going to learn more," he said. "This will be a personal experience."
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