When Hurricane Dorian devastated the Bahamas, Southeastern University students in Lakeland, Florida, were hasty to respond. They throw an initiative, Hope for the Bahamas, and raised up $24,000 in a matter of hours. During the Sept. 9 night chapel services, students prayed for fellow students and others who were affected by the storm. They also took up a special offering to help with relief efforts.
With the funds raised through Hope for the Bahamas, students were able to buy items to put together 1,000 hygiene kits to send to the Bahamas in partnership with Convoy of Hope. Students gathered the kits on Friday, filling bags with a towel, toothpaste, toothbrush, deodorant, soap, and shampoo. In adding to the kits, students wrote over 2,000 modified notes to send to the churches of their fellow Bahamian students. The students also collected goods and non-perishable goods during home athletic sports and chapel service area.
“When someone in our community faces calamity, we face it with them,” said Dr. Kent Ingle, president of Southeastern. “As we overheard the stories of our students and so many others affected by Hurricane Dorian, it was imperative that we quickly respond. I am honored of our SEU community members for coming together with those who were struck by the storm.”
Southeastern has 12 students enrolled in the university who are from the Bahamas. One of those students, Jody Whymns, was in the Bahamas when Hurricane Dorian hit.
“On Friday morning, I left Southeastern due to the storm. At that point, it was expected to hit Florida pretty bad,” said Whymns, a graduate student who is from Nassau. “When I arrived home, it was a disorder. Stores were empty. The gas stations were filled with people. People were preparing for the storm because we weren’t accurately sure when the storm would be striking.”
The storm finally hit on Monday morning. The hurricane Dorian made landfall as a Category 5, registering winds of more than 186 miles per hour and sitting on the islands for nearly three days.
“Although Nassau was not a direct hit for hurricane Dorian, we did experience some problem. We experienced lots of rain, flooding and a lot of power outages. There were roads that were completely flooded, the vehicle couldn’t pass. There were houses that experienced flooding. People had to vacate,” she said.
Whyman’s and her family survived the storm. She recalls listening to the news when the power went out, hearing people call for help for their families and relatives. Whyman’s’ uncles were initially among the missing ones. One of her uncles lived in Abaco and the other in Grand Bahama. They vanished everything they owned. Her best friend lives in Abaco and had to swim through several feet of water, holding onto bushes to find living quarters.
Following the storm, Whymns and her mother gathered extra garments they had and took them to the Red Cross to help others affected. “The public needs help. They need everything and anything at this point,” said Whymns.
Now in Florida, Whymns is associating with Southeastern and other students to constantly help those affected by the storm. Even though Whymns shares it will take years for life to return to normal in the Bahamas, she expresses how thankful and emotional she is for the support her country has received.
“We are very grateful and thankful for all of the help we have received because we realize that we couldn’t do this alone,” said Whymns.
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Thank you AG News and Priscilla Burr for sharing this.
