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While some students spent their spring break hitting the slopes in Colorado or sipping margaritas on the shores of Acapulco, one student had something a little different on her agenda.
Freshman Whitney Thurston spent a week of her spring break helping Katrina victims rebuild in the hard hit city of Biloxi, Mississippi.
MTV and United Way partnered in recruiting 100 students from all over the country to participate in Storm Corps, the first United Way-Think MTV alternative Spring Break Program.
Thurston was chosen from a pool of over 4,000 applicants, ages 18-25, based on prior community service and three essays.
Thurston said she happened to see an advertisement on MTV and applied immediately.
“Being from [Maine] you don’t really experience natural disasters like that. That’s why I went personally. I couldn’t even fathom what it was like, I had no idea, and I figured six months after the hurricane it would be better, but it’s so bad. It’s like a ghost town there,” said Thurston.
The 100 student volunteers were broken into groups of 10 during the week of March 11-18 and given daily tasks such as roofing, gutting houses, tearing up floors and picking up countless amounts of debris.
“It’s going to take at least six years to get it where it was before,” she said. “It’s a long, long process.”
An organization, “Hands On,” hosted the volunteering students. They provided housing and food for all involved.
A lot of the work in Biloxi, said Thurston, is being done to help regenerate the economy so it functions normally again.
Casinos and big businesses are the major projects for Biloxi. Houses, on the other hand, have not been much of a concern.
“I saw one house the entire time that I was there that was being built up again,” said Thurston.
“Houses are still being torn down.”
Because it’s a poor area, some of the locals are still residing in unlivable conditions.
“I want other people to know that it’s really bad down there, and it’s going to stay really bad unless other people [help],” said Thurston.
The majority of the communities where Storm Corps volunteered consisted of the elderly. Because of this the residents were not able to help as much as they would have liked.
Thurston said the residents were hopeful that things would eventually work out, and it helped create positive attitudes among the volunteers who were all highly discouraged by the severity of the damage.
“I think MTV’s partnership with the United Way offers young people an opportunity to go beyond donations and help victims in the Gulf Coast,” said Christina Norman, president of MTV, in a press release.
Along with sponsoring the event, MTV documented the services of Storm Corps, “The Amazing Break,” which aired Saturday, March 25.
Thurston said there were camera crews everywhere while the students were volunteering.
“You’re trying to like pull up a wall and there’d be a camera zooming in,” she said.
Thurston said even though she’s not a huge MTV fan, she was glad that they took part in the relief.
“I really hope that it does get students involved. I mean you can go get drunk with your friends anytime, but I think that it’s really important to help people that really need this badly,” said Thurston.
“We are very pleased to be working with Think MTV on this initiative, which will both help those in need in the Gulf Coast and give young people an alternative way to spend their school vacations,” said Brian A. Gallagher, president and CEO of the United Way of America, in a press release.
Thurston, along with the other volunteers, were constantly encouraged while in Mississippi to share their experiences with as many people as possible.
Along with the national media coverage Storm Corps garnered through outlets such as CNN and The Wall Street Journal, Thurston took it upon herself to share her experiences with local newspapers and television stations.
Thurston said she is continuing her participation in community service projects.
“I just started talking to the Eastern Maine United Way to find opportunities in the area.”
At the end of the school year she hopes to return to Biloxi to continue helping with the relief efforts.
