St. Michael Students Responded When Need Arose

One-by-one, or in groups of twos and threes, Hurricane Ida evacuees staying at the Raising Cane’s River Center American Red Cross Shelter filtered out of the arena and into a small section of the lobby set up as a make-shift store. 

Tables and hanging racks, overflowing with children’s, women’s and men’s clothing and shoes, were manned by students and their parents from St. Michael the Archangel High School in Baton Rouge. 

Father Ryan Hallford, coordinator of hurricane relief efforts for the Diocese of Baton Rouge, joined Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Baton Rouge to interview people to determine their needs. 

“One of the common requests was clothing and our plan at that point was to get their requests, get their sizes and come back with clothes for that individual client,” said Father Hallford. “But the problem is everyone needed clothing, some of them only had the clothes on their back, and so my concern was if we can only process three or four people an hour and we’re only here so many hours and there’s over 300 to 400 people here, and we know everyone needs clothes, then we’re not going to be able to meet that demand sufficiently. So I called Michael Acaldo (Society of at St. Vincent de Paul executive director). I said, ‘Look, is there any way we can do a clothing drop?’ ” 

Acaldo agreed to make the arrangements for the clothes but could not provide undergarments. Father Hallford then called St. Michael, where he had been a teacher and chaplain. He said he spoke with principal Ellen Lee and campus minister Emily Froeba about an underwear and sock drive. 

“The students responded really quickly because I sent out the notice Wednesday afternoon, and they had Thursday and Friday to bring it in. I have a whole carload of new underwear and undershirts and socks,” said Froeba. Two weeks after the storm, early Saturday, Sept. 11, students showed up to help others.

“It feels really good,” said St. Michael junior Miranda Martone. “I like helping people so it makes me feel good.”

“Our parents are very good at coming to the aid of people who might be in need,” said Lee, who was helping sort T-shirts and find sizes for clients. “Our students are very good about realizing they have to serve others as a part of their faith development.”

Lee said she had been in touch with diocesan schools in Hammond to find out what they needed. She said she does see more hurricane recovery service projects in the future.

For now, though, students were helping make life a little bit better for those coping with losing everything.

“People that come to the shelter, it’s because they have literally nowhere else to go,” said Father Hallford. “They don’t have any support network or they don’t have anyone to stay with or they don’t have any money for a hotel or transportation to go elsewhere, so I really wanted to make sure these people were able to get some of these basic necessities.

“I heard stories – one lady was rescued, when the water came, she had to get out and all of her possessions were gone and all she had was the clothes on her back, so when you hear that you respond.”

“I think it’s awesome to get this kind of response from the students and parents,” said Froeba. “More than anything, our kids weren’t necessarily impacted in this way, and I think it’s good for them to see how other people are struggling. Our service program is based on the charism of St. Mother Teresa, ‘Come and see.’”