Chances are, you have never driven past Bay St. Louis, Miss. And if you have, you probably wouldn’t remember it. A tiny coastal town of about 8,000 people, it is easy to miss on a map and easy to pass by on the highway. Unfortunately, Hurricane Katrina did not overlook this community, slamming head-on into the settlement on Aug. 29, 2005.

A little more than two years after the hurricane made its impact, the community is still struggling to rebuild itself. Luckily, Elon is there to lend a hand in those reconstruction efforts.

Sophomores Jonathan Mahlandt and Josh Tate are leading a group of 22 Elon students to the town as part of a Fake Break service trip sponsored by Elon Volunteers! They will join others working for the Camp Coastal organization, based in Kiln, Miss.

This is the fourth group of students that Elon has sent to the region and the second trip for both Tate and Mahlandt.

“Seeing it for the first time last year was weird. Being able to put a visual to what I had heard in the news was worse than I had imagined. Everything was gone,” Mahlandt said.

Members of Elon Volunteers! will complete construction projects for individual families during the trip, including building runoff hills and stilt foundations, and putting up insulation and drywall.

“I went last year because it sounded like a good way to contribute,” said Mahlandt. “This year, I’m going because it is the right thing to do.”

Nearly 1,000 miles from Bay St. Louis, sophomore Tara Moore is directing another Elon Volunteers! effort in Nuevo Paraiso, Honduras. Moore is a student leader for a group of 13 members of the Elon community that will join another 20 from Ohio as part of a project with the Hope For Honduran Children Foundation.

This will be Moore’s third trip to Honduras. She first went to the country last spring break after being inspired by her Global Experience class, taught by Professor of Religous Studies L.D. Russell, and returned over the summer. She will also go to Honduras over spring break this year.

“There was no way I could do this as a one-time thing,” Moore said.

For Moore’s group, the focus will be as much on building relationships as it will be on building structures.

“The most important part of my experience in Honduras has been hanging out with the kids,” Moore said. “When I got off the bus, people were pulling at me with open arms. They were just so happy to see me.”

In addition to forging those bonds through arts and crafts, games and teaching English classes to the kids, Moore and the other volunteers from the Hope for Honduran Children Foundation will also complete construction projects to benefit the community.

In the past, Moore has helped build a tilapia pond, which the community uses to raise fish to eat, and also aided in the construction of an Internet café.

Starting next year, Elon will offer a Winter Term class in Honduras that will incorporate service projects and history aspects.

“I’m excited for the kids down there to meet people from Elon,” Moore said, “They know they care.”

For Moore, the Honduran experience has been a moving one.

“They’re like family,” she said. “You don’t forget about family.”

Reporter: Stephen Murray - 01/23/07