Oklahoma City University has found a way to help those affected by Hurricane Florence. The campus community has set up various relief baskets around the campus and is taking donations to be sent to the Carolinas.
However, this isn’t the first time the United Methodist-affiliated university has held this program. It started last year with Hurricane Harvey. Working with the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), several full bins were sent out, then returned and filled again.
“OCU has a large number of students from Texas whose family and friends were directly affected by the damaging storms and flooding,” said Rev. Dr. Charles Neff, vice president for University-Church Relations at Oklahoma City University. “We decided to extend the collection period when shortly thereafter Hurricane Irma struck Florida and Maria struck Puerto Rico. The outflowing of support from faculty, staff and students was tremendous.
“As it quickly became apparent that Hurricane Florence was going to equal the storms of last year, we decided to mobilize our collection bins again. Faculty and staff from across campus answered the call to monitor collections in their buildings and return full bins to be sent on to UMCOR. Response has been good and supplies are already coming in.”
The university currently plans to have the baskets in place through mid-October. Most of what is being asked for are “clean-up buckets” — self-contained kits to assist homeowners in cleaning up after the flood waters recede. UMCOR keeps thousands of buckets on hand for immediate distribution, and the donations that come from OCU will help to replenish the supply.
