Johns Hopkins Responds Hurricane Katrina September 2005

Collection of Personal Care Kits for Displaced Victims of Hurricane Katrina

September 16, 2005

Dear Students, Faculty and Staff,

The Johns Hopkins University faith communities, through Campus Ministries and the Interfaith Council, have united to organize a collection of personal care kits for displaced victims of Hurricane Katrina, both those evacuated here to Baltimore and those still in the Gulf Coast region.

This drive will begin on Monday, Sept. 19, and will continue through Friday, Sept. 30. Kits will be distributed to evacuees at the Clarence "Du" Burns Center in Baltimore; others will be sent directly to a Gulf Coast network of churches that are collecting kits at nine warehouse sites throughout the region.

The shelter in Baltimore is working with about 500 families, some in residence there but many staying in private homes in the area. They have very few personal items with them. The shelter also is working to help busloads of displaced college students who arrived on Thursday to enroll temporarily at Morgan State University and the University of Baltimore. These students had nothing with them but what they were wearing: no change of clothes, no backpacks, no school supplies.

All of the victims of this horrible disaster need the most basic personal care items. Please look at the list online and consider picking up something to help us with this effort, perhaps when you are out shopping this weekend.

All items must be new and unopened. Your donations can be dropped off at the Bunting Meyerhoff Interfaith and Community Service Center at 3509 N. Charles Street Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sundays from 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Please, with the exception of new underwear and socks, do not include clothes with your donation, as the shelters already have more clothes than they can store or process. Gift cards for clothing are preferred so that evacuees can choose what they need.

For more information, please send e-mail messages to chaplain@jhu.edu.

The Johns Hopkins community is an incredibly generous one; you have proven time and again your concern for those most in need of our help. I thank you in advance for your response to this ongoing disaster.

Sincerely,
Sharon M.K. Kugler
University Chaplain