Extending hospitality in the age of Katrina

In response to Hurricane Katrina, Jen and I decided to join with 200,000 other Americans to offer our spare room to a Katrina refugee. It seemed like one concrete thing that we could do to help in the midst of such a horrible situation.

We received a few responses, mostly from displaced students who are going to study in New York for the fall. Last night, we met with Vanessa, one such student who will be staying with us as she completes the fall semester at Fordham. She previously attended Loyola, but evacuated just in time with a duffel bag of clothes and her newly purchased cell phone.

One place I thought we could start with helping to get her settled is to put out a call asking for gift cards or gift certificates that she could use to purchase clothes and other items necessary for life in the city.

If you would like to send these to Vanessa, feel free to mail them to our house: 136 Milton St. Brooklyn, NY 11222. She will be moving in this evening. It certainly doesn't require much effort, since all she has is one bag.

Any help with welcoming Vanessa is grately appreciated. I'm sure that there will be more updates as things progress. In the meantime, please continue to keep the Gulf Coast in your prayers as well as all the folks who are now scattered throughout our country in search of a place to call home.