Grace Neylan jumped into action to help those affected by recent hurricanes in the Gulf Coast.
After Hurricanes Harvey and Irma devastated Texas and Florida earlier this month, Neylan, an MBA candidate who serves as graduate assistant for ENACTUS, organized a boot drive with local fire departments in Olean, Allegany, Salamanca and Bradford to benefit Harvey and Irma survivors.
“The fire departments helped us a lot with the fundraiser itself, so they were the first people [we] reached out to when we knew we needed something tangible to do,” Neylan said. “We knew the boot drive was so successful before.”
Todd Palmer, ENACTUS adviser, explained that this year’s boot drive fundraiser was originally done in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
“What happened was that we did a very successful boot drive 12 years ago with Katrina, so we knew that we could do it,” Palmer explained. “And we weren’t as well organized then.”
He added that the fire departments involved this year jumped on the opportunity quickly.
Palmer, Ph.D., said ENACTUS and BonaResponds co-sponsored Bonaventure’s hurricane relief efforts.
“Jim does so much hurricane relief stuff,” Palmer explained, referring to Jim Mahar, Ph.D., founder of BonaResponds and finance professor. “We have great partners down there and we know that if we can get them funding, they give us housing and food and sort the jobs for us. It’s absolutely essential to have these kind of partners when you have these kind of trips.”
Palmer explained that hurricane relief is not a quick process, saying that ENACTUS students who go to the Bahamas each year will have to work on even last year’s Hurricane Matthew for a long time to come.
“It takes years to recover from a hurricane,” he emphasized. “We’ll be working on Hurricane Matthew houses for years; or right now, Hurricane Maria is headed toward the Bahamas. They can’t catch a break.”
“One thing when you do this stuff is you’ve got to commit for the long term,” Palmer said. “For the Bahamas, we’ve done five different hurricane relief trips… and then BonaResponds has done a lot of them.”
Palmer said that this year’s relief trip, to take place during spring break, will include students, faculty, alumni and local people, as it did during Katrina.
“A big difference between 2017 and 2005 is, number one, we are much better organized in terms of student systems,” Palmer said, noting that Neylan, with other ENACTUS and BonaResponds students pulled together the boot drive in less than a week.
Neylan said students interested in getting involved can contact her directly.
“We watched a video that someone had made from the Katrina trip,” she said. “Everyone was just blown away with the trip. All the students never thought they would have an opportunity like that.”
Ultimately, they hope to help as much as possible.
“We execute things very quickly here,” Neylan added. “There isn’t really time to wait; the faster we act, the more we can get done.”
mcelfrdh14@bonaventure.edu
