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Funds needed to repair campus ministry buildings
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Web-only photo courtesy of the Wesley Foundation
at Tulane University
Volunteers help with cleanup of the Wesley Foundation at Tulane University after flooding from Hurricane Katrina.
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| Volunteers
help with cleanup of the Wesley Foundation at Tulane University in New
Orleans after flooding from Hurricane Katrina. The United Methodist
Campus Ministers Association wants to raise $170,000 to repair this
building and the Wesley Foundation building of Mississippi Gulf Coast
Community College in Perkinston, Miss. A Web-only photo courtesy of the
Wesley Foundation at Tulane University. Photo #w06146. Accompanies UMNS
story #615. 10/17/06 |
Oct. 17, 2006
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (UMNS) — The United Methodist Campus Ministers
Association is working to raise $170,000 to repair Wesley Foundation
buildings damaged by Hurricane Katrina and to support campus ministries
in Louisiana and Mississippi.
The Rev. Bill Campbell, campus minister at Middle Tennessee State
University and co-chairman of the association, said money is needed for
construction and renovation, furnishings, appliances and ministry
programs at Gulf Coast colleges and universities.
A total of $115,000 is needed for construction and renovation of the
Wesley Foundation buildings at Tulane University in New Orleans and
Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in Perkinston. An additional
$55,000 is needed for programs at these schools and at Dillard
University in New Orleans.
Severe damages
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The Rev. Max Zehner |
“The Wesley Foundation at Tulane University was flooded with several
inches of water,” said the Rev. Max Zehner, United Methodist campus
minister at the New Orleans college. “The good news was that our newly
added building space fared quite well structurally against the winds of
Katrina. The bad news was that the flood waters advanced as high as a
foot in parts of our building. The building needed to be gutted on the
lower level, and we lost all our flooring and furniture.”
The Wesley Foundation building on the campus of Mississippi Gulf Coast
Community College in Perkinston was damaged so severely that it was
declared unsafe for occupation. Land was donated for a new multipurpose
building, which will include space for a new home for the Wesley
Foundation.
Susan Vuyovich, a campus minister at Perkinston, said the need for a
social and spiritual support system was magnified when six students at
the college were killed in a traffic accident a few months after
Katrina. The tragedy dramatized the need for a new Wesley Foundation
home and a place for students to gather with friends.
Decline in funds
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The Rev. Bill Campbell |
Declining support from the denomination frequently means more than half
of a campus ministry’s operating budget must be raised by each local
Wesley Foundation, Campbell said.
“To raise funds for campus ministry, Wesley Foundation boards and campus
ministers turn to individuals and the surrounding community for the
strongest support,” he said. “When an entire region is devastated, a
Wesley Foundation program within that region that is hit especially hard
loses not only apportionment money but also the sustaining backbone
support of individuals and area churches.”
Bishop Hope Morgan Ward, leader of the Mississippi Area, joined the
campus ministers in urging churches to support the Katrina Campus
Ministry Recovery Appeal. Information on the Katrina Church Recovery
Appeal is available at http://umc.org/churchrecovery. Donations can be made online or designated for Bishops’ Appeal #818-001 and sent to an annual conference treasurer.
Donations to assist the United Methodist Campus Ministers Association’s
Wesley Foundations recovery efforts can be made to the United Methodist
Higher Education Foundation. Checks can be designated in the memo line
for Katrina Campus Ministry Recovery. Donations should be sent to United
Methodist Higher Education Foundation, 1001 Nineteenth Ave., South,
Nashville, TN 37212-2130. For more information, contact Thomas Yow,
foundation president and chief executive, at tyow@gbhem.org.
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