Mississippi State Assistant Vice Provost for Student Success and Dean of Students Thomas Bourgeois is reaching out to numerous students from Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia to show support for those impacted by Hurricane Helene, a Category 4 storm that made landfall Thursday night [Sept. 26].
Bourgeois said the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President is encouraging students impacted in any way by the hurricane to respond or call 662-325-3611 so the university can ensure each student’s safety and provide the academic resources they need during this time.
When students are facing a sudden crisis, including families impacted by severe weather or other disasters, the university’s Division of Student Affairs works with others on campus to help impacted students through difficult times. The university also has supportive relationships with disaster response and recovery agencies, as well as nonprofit organizations.
For students willing to aid those who have been affected by Hurricane Helene, know it can take months and even years for those communities to recover and rebuild. To increase efforts to be of help, consider these tips for donating and volunteering:
—Be patient and be safe. Do not self-deploy into a disaster area. We know you want to help in any way possible, but you must wait until first responders announce that the affected area is safe to enter and that volunteer opportunities have been identified.
—Sign up before showing up to volunteer. If you can volunteer, find an organization active in disaster recovery and sign up directly with them. Capacity is stretched very thin during disasters, so make sure you can be utilized. View a list of organizations accepting volunteers on the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster website (NVOAD) at https://www.nvoad.org.
—Donate cash. What most communities need is money, not things. A cash donation to a recognized national nonprofit or a disaster relief organization is the most effective donation you can make because it offers the most flexibility in getting the necessary resources. If you donate goods, organizations will have to spend time, money and volunteer power to sort and store donations. This can be problematic, especially when storage facilities are sometimes being used as shelters. For a list of these major nonprofits, visit the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster’s website at https://www.nvoad.org. The Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office also has charity giving information. View more information at Check Your Charity.pdf (ms.gov).
To support MSU students who have been affected by the recent hurricane, consider a donation to the MSU Student Relief Fund. This fund, built with private gifts, is designed to help student body members affected by day-to-day crises or displaced by catastrophic disasters. To donate and view more information, visit https://dda.msstate.edu/give-now?f=311151.
For those who have been affected by a recent disaster, MSU Extension has information on disaster cleanup and repairs at http://extension.msstate.edu/community/disaster-response.
If you are a student at MSU and need assistance, contact the Dean of Students’ office at 662-325-3611 or dos@msstate.edu. For more about the university’s natural disaster relief efforts, visit the Maroon Volunteer Center at https://www.slce.msstate.edu/service/natural-disaster-relief