'Sleepless solidarity' event raises funds for hurricane victims

Published: 2005-09-07

VALPARAISO, Ind. (CNS) -- Coming from south Florida, Keith Aumend, a junior at Valparaiso University, knows "how hurricanes can mess up your house." That's one reason Aumend joined fellow college students and community members in an all-night prayer experience Sept. 4-5 at the St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Student Center on the campus of Valparaiso, a Lutheran university. Father Kevin McCarthy, chaplain at St. Teresa, was hoping for 150 participants. By the conclusion of an evening prayer Sept. 5, nearly 200 participants -- two-thirds of them students -- had registered. "We're kind of sympathetic with everyone in the Superdome" in New Orleans, said Aumend, whose family had recently completed home repairs after another hurricane. Father McCarthy invited students, community members, and their families to "sacrifice a night in their comfortable bed, thereby being in solidarity will all those displaced by the tragedy of the hurricane." For every individual who spent the night at St. Teresa, the student center donated $100. Those funds went to Catholic Charities and Lutheran disaster relief efforts and Habitat for Humanity of Slidell, La., where St. Teresa students spent their spring break.

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