CTK Students Provide Aid Throughout Diocese

Less than 24 hours after Hurricane Ida hit Louisiana, Grace Krause, campus minister at Christ the King Church and Student Center at LSU, sent out an email looking for volunteers to help residents clean up debris and damage.

“People needed help, and I knew we had a ton of students and adults in the community that were looking for a way to help them,” explained Krause. “So we just got to work as best we knew how with the resources we could gather.” 

She joined forces with West Giffin, associate director of Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the Diocese of Baton Rouge, and the two began organizing teams of volunteers and collecting cleaning supplies for the heavy-duty work of removing drywall, insulation and carpets from flooded homes. Giffin had experience in hurricane recovery as he helped crews from Catholic Charities of Acadiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura last year.

Initially, Krause was rounding up volunteers to help Catholic Charities of Acadiana crews who were planning to work in the Houma-Thibodaux Diocese but gas shortages kept CTK volunteers from traveling. Still, with so many people wanting to help out, as indicated by more than 400 emails Krause received, she and Giffin talked with priests in the Diocese of Baton Rouge diocese and learned there was plenty of work to do closer to home. 

“Parts of Hammond flooded and people all over the civil parishes of Livingston, Tangipahoa, St. Helena and St. James had considerable tree damage,” Krause said. “So we started sending crews where we could. We went to Hammond, Amite, French Settlement, St. James/Vacherie, Tickfaw, Ponchatoula and St. Amant. 

“People needed help, and I knew we had a ton of students and adults in the community that were looking for a way to help them.”

Grace Krause

Campus Minister, Christ the King Church and Student Center at LSU

“We sent two crews to Laplace to help out some CTK alumni whose immediate families had flooded really badly. They both had significant damage and they both had given so much to CTK over the years, that we really wanted to help them.”

Dina Dow, director of the Office of Evangelization and Catechesis in the Diocese of Baton Rouge, and her husband Bill were among the volunteers who went to LaPlace. She said skills she learned during the 2016 flood, such as removing drywall and insulation, came in handy. She said team captains were designated “to teach the young adults how to gut a house.  But, there’s more to recovery than the physical work.”

“There’s also the pastoral care that comes with it, so it’s more than just cleaning out somebody’s house, it’s the pastoral care that goes with it because you’re accompanying people that are in an extreme crisis in their lives,” said Dow. 

According to Krause, 75 college students and 30 adults comprised the volunteer teams, which also worked on debris removal including chainsaw work on downed trees and trees blocking access to houses. Krause said sustaining the level of the operation right after the storm might be difficult but CTK would love to partner with other Catholic groups to provide student volunteers throughout the semester. She was moved by the compassion of the students wanting to help, considering the challenges they faced at the start of the school year with new COVID-19 protocols and a natural disaster.

“The students have worked very hard and joyfully,” said Krause. “I know many of them have been touched by the stories of the people they’ve served.

“At one flooded house we went to, two girls spent all day cleaning family photographs one-by-one so they could be salvaged. When the homeowner came back in the afternoon and saw that, she burst into tears.”

Krause said it was difficult trying to coordinate efforts with no cell phone service in the areas where people most needed help but thanks to helping hands and a lot of prayers, it all worked out.

“I was just really grateful for how supportive everyone was in the beginning – from the students volunteering to the priests and laity who jumped in to help West and me coordinate and lead work crews, to Bishop (Michael G.) Duca himself, who showed up early every morning that we sent out crews, bringing us ice for our coolers and praying with us and over us to send us out,” she said.