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Issue date: 3/3/06 Section: News

Media Credit: Jonathan Magee Sophomore Sara Buros and Seniors Carlo Schmidt and Tyler Keyes play guitar before The Well. Well students have volunteered to visit Gulfport, Miss., to help rebuild the community in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Thirty members are visiting over Spring Break.

About 30 members of The Well will be making their annual mission trip, this year's to Gulfport, Miss., over Spring Break. The members will be doing volunteer work for those victims of Hurricane Katrina still struggling to rebuild their city.

Junior Robert Garcia said that the mission trip is usually to an international destination. In the past, members have spent their Spring Breaks ministering in Russia, Nicaragua and Mexico. According to Garcia, this year was different because the most immediate need was in the United States.

"Right after Katrina happened, we were talking about how the best mission work we could do was right here," Garcia said. "We just saw the need for it."

According to Garcia, Spring Break is an ideal time to go because the government is allowing volunteers into the region. Members will be bused over to Gulfport, where the fellowship group will be based out of Westminster Presbyterian Church, which has agreed to help them forge links with the city to fill the needs of the community.

The Well is sponsored by First Presbyterian Church in San Antonio, and the church helped to coordinate the event and make contact with the congregation in Mississippi.

Garcia said that he has always enjoyed the mission trips, but he anticipates something uni-que about this year's service.

"This one is different than the ones in the past…this one really just hit so close to home," Garcia said. "No one saw [Katrina] and felt neutral about it."

According to Ashley Johnson, university ministries intern, this is an opportunity for these students to do something for those who are still in need after the Hurricanes.

"With 25 to 30 students going, it's fun to see that their faith is so important and they're willing to give up their Spring Break to help people who are so much in need," Johnson said.

Senior Rebecca Clark is also going to Mississippi. Clark said that initially members had wanted to go right away, but that there was such a high volume of initial relief efforts the decision was made to delay the trip.

"By now the media hype is over, but there's still devastation," Clark said.

According to Clark, the volunteers will be doing anything that needs to be done, including childcare, home repair, carpentry and debris clean up.

Clark said that she feels as though students at Trinity are fortunate, and this is a chance to reach out to people who need so much.

"I'm just thankful for even the opportunity to go," Clark said. "We want people to know we're still thinking about them."

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