In order to fund the trip, LCS "re-worked their entire budget," said senior Alex Kramer, co-organizer of the Volunteer Vacation trip to Mississippi. LCS was one of the many on- and off-campus groups that helped to fund the trip. Kramer worked with senior Rachel Rosen to find sites at which a self-selecting group of Tufts students could volunteer.
Kramer cited health concerns as a reason that the group did not travel to a more devastated area. She also wanted to avoid going to New Orleans, thinking that it would be more helpful to volunteer in a small Mississippi town that had received little media attention, but was "just as deserving" as New Orleans.
"After seeing Highway 90, it was obvious that we made the right decision," she said.
Both Rosen and Kramer also stressed how difficult it was to organize a trip for a group of 100 unskilled students to a devastated area. The Red Cross required their volunteers to be skilled, and neither senior knew for sure where the group would spend their week until early January.
But both still considered the trip a success. "It's not the kind of experience that you forget, ever," Rosen said.
