As communities in the Binghamton area recover from recent flooding, Geneseo students are doing their part to get involved.
On Sept. 17, senior Sean Phillips and junior Samantha Williams each led a group of students down to the Binghamton area to support community members who had been affected by flood damage.
Phillips’ interest in organizing a service trip began after learning of the damage from Geneseo alumnus Sarah Burdette, now a graduate student at Binghamton University. After speaking with a few different campus organizations, Phillips was able to organize a group of 11 students, many of whom belong to Geneseo’s Intervarsity Christian Fellowship.
The group drove down to Binghamton for the day and split into two groups. One group traveled to Burdette’s neighborhood to work on a severely damaged home, while the second group volunteered with the community-organized Flood Relief Flash Mob, in which volunteers met and dispersed throughout the Binghamton area.
Senior Matt Smith was among the group members who worked with Burdette on the damaged home.
“Water filled the basement and filled the first floor up to about six inches from the ceiling,” Smith said.
“We basically got in there and they were gutting the whole house,” he said. “That means ripping drywall off and … insulation and everything right down to the frame. Everything was still soaked. The drywall was still wet; it would just crumble and fall off.”
Smith recalled the shock he felt after seeing the extensive damage in Burdette’s neighborhood.
“It was crazy,” he said. “I knew it was bad … but this was a week and a half after and it was much worse than I, or anyone else I knew who came down with us, thought it would be.”
Smith said that Linda Hall, the homeowner, was grateful for the volunteers’ help, and reminded them that full recovery is still far off.
“It’s not going to be just this cleanup and you’re done,” she said. “There is going to be plenty to do for the next year.”
Williams and her volunteer group also worked on a damaged home, helping clean up the garage while the homeowners worked on their waterlogged first floor.
“We power-washed all of their stuff and power-washed their garage and cleaned it all up … which they were very thankful for because it was six hours of work that they didn’t have to do,” she said.
Williams and her group also volunteered at a local church that was giving out cleaning supplies to the community.
“I’ve never seen people more appreciative of the help that they’re receiving,” she said. “There were a lot of people helping, whether it was at the nearby church or just neighbors helping neighbors.”
Tom Matthews, Geneseo’s director of leadership, education, development and training, said that Phillips and Williams are not the only students who have expressed interest in flood relief service trips. Mathews encourages students who are seeking help for organizing a trip to contact Kay Fly, coordinator of student volunteer and service learning, at fly@geneseo.edu.
“We encourage them to reach out and help people [that] there’s a connection to,” Matthews said.
In addition, Phillips and a small group of students are in the process of organizing another flood relief service trip. He encourages those interested to email him at ssp2@geneseo.edu.