The University of Notre Dame was one of nine schools in the nation to receive a Katrina Compassion Award for Excellence in Hurricane Relief Service from the Corporation for National and Community Service.
During the fall break some six weeks after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast last year, more than three dozen Notre Dame students assisted in cleanup and repair operations in Biloxi and Hattiesburg, Miss., during their fall break.Notre Dame had ties to both communities through Catholic schools served by Notre Dames Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) Program, and the student volunteers were assisted and equipped with funds from the Universitys Center for Social Concerns and Campus Ministry office.
Other relief efforts among the many undertaken by the University included a collection taken up in the Notre Dame Stadium (80,795 capacity) during last years football game against Michigan State; collections taken up at Masses in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart and the Universitys 27 residence halls; donations of goods from NDSurplus, the Office of Information Technologies, Building Services and the Universitys licensing department; a rapid fund-raising effort launched by Notre Dame alumni clubs in New Orleans and Mississippi as well as nationwide; the Notre Dame Alumni Associations establishment of a hurricane relief Web site to help coordinate relief efforts undertaken by members of the University community; nine days of prayer to Our Lady of Sorrows for hurricane victims; and a clothing drive in the Department of Athletics.
The other schools that received the award were the University of Connecticut, Georgetown University, the Baylor College of Dentistry, Louisiana Tech University, Central Michigan University, the State University of New York at Geneseo, Southern University and A&M College, and Xavier University of Louisiana.
_ Contact :Bill Purcell, associate director of the Center for Social Concerns, at 574- 631 9473 or_ " wpurcell@nd.edu ":mailto:wpurcell@nd.edu , or visit the Corporation for National and Community Service Web site at " http://www.learnandserve.gov/about/programs/higher_ed_honorroll.asp ":http://www.learnandserve.gov/about/programs/higher_ed_honorroll.asp _
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