A group of 25 area college students traveled to New Orleans over spring break. The students helped clean up the aftermath from Hurricane Katrina, preparing backyards for landscaping and picking up trash.

Katie Hargrove, 2007 international studies graduate and current honors program secretary, helped lead the trip, which was sponsored by College Heights Christian Church.

“It’s part of our faith – reaching out and serving a community that is in need,” she said. “There are still so many people without proper housing and the resources for food and supplies ….We want them to know they’re not forgotten.”

Participation in the trip was not limited to members of College Heights.

“We take any willing, able body we can get,” Hargrove said. “And just have a lot of fun together.”

Because students came from a wide variety of backgrounds, the group worked to build camaraderie before the trip began. In the months leading up to the trip, they met for weekly dinners to discuss their plans and pray. They also initiated a variety of creative fundraisers. A Missouri Southern exchange student from France sold crepes in the TV studio, for example.

But Hargrove said the group still needed more money, even after students had held a babysitting night, donated plasma and drained their bank accounts. Some of them got together with friends the weekend before spring break and recorded songs with piano and guitar accompaniment on a MacBook in their dorm rooms. They compiled a CD and asked for donations.

In a matter of days, they raised $1200.

“We were completely shocked at how willing people were to give,” Hargrove said.

Once in New Orleans, Hargrove said it was refreshing to work alongside others. Another church group showed up to help, and a group of pharmaceutical representatives volunteered their time to do landscaping.