Trinity students assist sandbagging effort
As floodwaters rise, Trinity students stack sandbags
around a home at risk of flooding.
By Jessie Wagler
As news of the rising, dangerous floodwaters spread throughout North Dakota in the spring of 2009, Trinity Bible College students and staff decided to lend a helping hand in any way they could. Over 3 million sandbags were needed to contain the floodwaters around homes and businesses across the southern and southeastern parts of the state.
On March 23, about 20 volunteers from Trinity, located in Ellendale, went to Pheasant Lake to help sandbag around homes. Getting to the houses that were in need of sandbagging was difficult, as the Trinity students and staff had to struggle through mud, rain and melting snow.
After filling numerous bags, the volunteers formed assembly lines to stack the sandbags around the houses. They worked hard throughout the day, even working through their classes, and returned to campus covered in mud and sand. That evening the college administration prepared the gym as a refuge, if necessary, for evacuees from Pheasant Lake and other areas that were experiencing flooding.
Earlier in the week, a student had asked the administration for permission to get a team together to go to Fargo, North Dakota, to help sandbag. While that trip was canceled because of weather conditions and traveling hazards, a group went the following week to help in the successful effort to save Fargo.
The next week, another call for help came from the residents of Oakes, a town 30 miles east of Ellendale. Students and staff accepted the challenge right away and sent a group for yet another long day of sandbagging. Like the day at Pheasant Lake, the students skipped meals and were excused from their classes in order to give assistance. Although they only spent a few days sandbagging, their efforts made a huge impact on not only the people whose homes were in danger, but also the students and staff themselves.
“It is so easy to get wrapped up in our lives here at TBC, and this was an opportunity to put into practice what we are learning — to serve and love people,” shared Kristin Fortney, a Trinity student who assisted in the sandbagging for three days, both at Pheasant Lake and Oakes.
The flooding in North Dakota made national and world headlines and even caught the attention of the president. Thousands of people around the state and nation did their part to help. Although the Trinity Bible College volunteers played only a small part in the larger picture, they were able to give their time and effort to help those in need. For additional information on this and other Trinity Bible College news, visit www.trinitybiblecollege.edu.