ALLEGANY, N.Y. – BonaResponds, a group from St. Bonaventure University formed to help victims of Hurricane Katrina, is planning several local service projects in preparation for return visits to Louisiana and Mississippi, according to the Olean Time-Herald.
The group led an effort to clean up Archbishop Walsh High School in preparation for the school’s 50th anniversary celebration.
BonaResponds also plans a Sept. 16 service day in Allegany and Olean. Volunteers will help at sites in the village, the St. Elizabeth Motherhouse, along the Allegheny River Valley Trail and at the Bartlett House in Olean.
“It will be much like a day in the Gulf,” the group’s faculty advisor, Jim Mahar, is quoted as saying.
A group of 286 St. Bonaventure students and faculty, as well as some Olean-area volunteers, traveled to the Gulf in March to help hurricane victims in New Orleans, and Biloxi and Long Beach in Mississippi. Members of BonaResponds plan trips to the Gulf this December and again in March during the university’s spring break.