Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas on Aug. 25, 2017, dropping a record 50 inches of rain in some parts of Texas. According to CNN, this massive storm left 30,000 people in need of shelter and claimed at least 60 lives.

Since Baker University is located in the Midwest, the affect and the detriment that hurricanes like Harvey cause receive little attention. However, a number of students find their home in Texas, making the impact of Harvey much more personal for some.

This led organizations around campus to start raising funds and supplies for those affected by Hurricane Harvey. Particularly, Zeta Chi Fraternity as well as the men’s and women’s basketball teams.

Zeta Chi decided to do a fundraiser, after sophomore Danny Griese introduced the idea to his house.

“Home Depot was asking for volunteers and my dad volunteered to help out. He is going to drive a truck down there full of supplies like food, clothes, money, equipment and everything that they could use down there,” Griese said. “My mom told me that and she told me she was going to do one for her work, so I wanted to do one here as well.”

To fundraise, Zeta Chi set up a table outside of the Long Student Center with a box for supplies as well as a jar for monetary donations. In addition to tabling, Zeta Chi also reached out to other fraternities and sororities to raise awareness of the fundraiser and ask for additional supplies. Through this, they were able to collect $211.68 along with various supplies, like canned goods and clothing items.

Noah Hastings, a sophomore Zeta Chi member, believes that raising money for those in need allows people, especially college students, to gain perspective about the world around them.

“We [Baker students] kind of seclude ourselves,” Hastings said. “We all know each other so we see the problems here, but we kind of forget that there is an outside world and that there are people in need somewhere else, so I think it’s awesome to donate and help others in need.”

Along with Zeta Chi, the men’s and women’s basketball teams also collected supplies to send to those affected by the hurricane.

Senior Caitlin Modesett saw her team come together to help those in need.

“We ended up filling up a couple boxes completely full with clothes and shoes and stuff like that and then sent it down to Houston to help the people in the centers,” Modesett said.

Raising money or supplies to help those in need was a particularly important issue for Modesett, as she is from Houston and was personally affected by the hurricane.

Although her house only suffered roof damage, she knew many people who were forced to evacuate because of the flooding that came from the unexpected rainfall.

“I think the biggest thing about this was that no one really expected it to be as bad as it was because we got a year’s worth of rainfall in 5 days, so it caused that much flooding,” Modesett said.

Overall, both the basketball teams and Zeta Chi were able to collect supplies and donations that would go toward helping those affected by the hurricane and saw the severity of the situation, no matter how personally connected they were to the issue.

“It’s important to remember that you’re blessed and lucky for what you have right now, but that might not always be there so do what you want other people to do for you,” Modesett said.