Coverage of BonaResponds and Darius Monsef's talk

Hands On USA gets a big hand from local volunteers
By KATIE WARD, The Times Herald
02/09/2006


(all quotes, click above to go to the article)

ST. BONAVENTURE —

....Darius Monsef ....told some 265 members of the St. Bonaventure
BonaResponds team, which plans to join the Hands On’s
efforts on March 4, to expect chaos, but promised them
that one week of service would make a bigger
difference in the lives of Katrina victims then they
could imagine."

Volunteers will work out of at least three different
locations — Biloxi, New Orleans, La., and Long Beach,
Miss. — gutting houses and removing debris, working
with humane societies, delivering food and performing
a multitude of other tasks.


St. Bonaventure students already have organized two
initiatives, one to provide the area Little League
with donated baseball supplies and another to collect
books for libraries damaged by the hurricane.
....


According to education student Becky Kessler, who’s
running the book collection at Allegany Elementary,
where she interns, the response from the elementary
students has been better than expected.
.......

‘We’re not taking 265 followers with us to
Mississippi,” said Todd Palmer, assistant professor of
management sciences and a Students in Free Enterprise
(SIFE) advisor. “We need 265 leaders. This is going to
be extraordinary.”
.....
"Christine Francis, student leader for the
BonaResponds, has made the trip twice already and said
she doesn’t want to stop helping in Mississippi and
Louisiana."

......

“I absolutely loved it,” she said. “It was the most
satisfying work I’ve ever done. It’s definitely been
something I’ve been eating, breathing and sleeping
since October."