"Bulldog fans for life.."

Read the reflections of residents who watched the Bulldogs in action:
The following are excerpts from letters and e-mails received by the university.

“It means a lot to have young people who are striving to get a higher education to give of their time to come to Louisiana and work as you did.

You helped pile some of the accumulation of a strong 48-year marriage outside our house. We wanted to come to Chalmette to meet you, hug you, and give you our thanks in person but were not able to do so.

I think from the addresses that you must be athletes and my husband would have loved discussing that with you. We will certainly have a reason to watch for the University of Redlands in the sports columns, TV sports, etc.”

--an e-mail from Roy and Martha Bassett

“Yesterday a van pulled up with some members of the football team and they went in and completely gutted my house, what a fantastic job they did.

I called my wife and told her what was being done and she also was overwhelmed. Please understand we are not used to his, we do for ourselves and take care of our own problems. THANK YOU!!!

Please pass this on to your students, what fine men and women they will turn out to be. To come here in this area of devastation to live and work is beyond us.”

-- an e-mail from Steve Spicuzza

“I February 2006, I had the distinct pleasure of meeting and participating with many Redlands students and leaders in the rescue clean up in the New Orleans area. I served as one of four team leaders with the Hilltop rescue group headquartered in a compound in Slidell, LA.

Being from Arkansas of Tornado Alley fame, I have worked in many clean ups. I have never worked with a better group of young people including the three leaders that accompanied the students.

So whatever you are doing at Redlands, keep up the good work.”

Sincerely,
Jim Wood (no relation to Redlands’ Kathryn Wood)

“We had reached a point of stagnation in our endeavors. I had been thinking of giving up hope of ever seeing our house as a home again and renting a place to live. The FEMA trailer has been a blessing, but the walls were closing in and patience was wearing thin.

We have watched as groups of volunteers flow through our house adding touches that they view as small tasks in the rebuilding process. We have viewed those people all as angles touching our house on its path back to being a home.

While the whole Katrina experience has been trying, the blessings resulting from it have been incredible. The largest blessing, by far, has been St. Bernard Project and the beautiful people involved. Because of you all I have a renewed faith in humanity and we will soon have a home. Out house is no longer just a building, on a street, in a town ravaged by a hurricane. It is a home, handed down through four generation, rebuilt by the loving hands of angles sent to us through you!”

-- a letter from the Gonzales and Minor family sent to the staff and volunteers of St. Bernard Project, which the football team worked with during their 2007 trip

“We had the privilege of getting our homes cleaned out by the offensive line and the running backs and quarterbacks, as well as head Coach Mike and Coach Jeff. It was a nasty, dirty job and they did it with no complaints. All we could offer them was food and drink.

Our entire community of 67,000 people was destroyed. Over 25,000 homes were ruined by floodwaters, which sat for weeks. The homes were moldy and jumbled with broken up furniture, six inches of thick mud, and refrigerators with rotting food. For us, the overwhelming task to deal with our destroyed homes was made easier by these young men. For people to travel 2,000 miles on their Spring Break to do this thankless job makes us realize that God exists and He certainly is part of those men. Their parents should be proud.

Please consider us Bulldog fans for live and know that we will always remember these guys and what they did for us.”

--An e-mail to President Stuart Dorsey from the McLoughlin family