CSB/SJU students spend weekend doing flood relief work

By Christa Schmidt '11
September 18, 2007

To wrap up their first full week of classes of the 2007-2008 school year, 11 students from the College of Saint Benedict(CSB) and Saint John’s University (SJU) traveled to southeastern Minnesota.  Their goal: flood relief.

After flooding killed seven and destroyed several homes, the group of students from SJU Campus Ministry felt compelled to act.

On Saturday, Sept. 8, the group met with Paul and Sarah Freid, both graduates of CSB/SJU, and their daughter, Claire.  Together, they worked to stuff damaged areas of a soon-to-be environmentally stable straw bale house.  The house was in the process of being built when the flood waters came.  As the earth plaster can not be put on until after the house is complete, the water did some damage.  After covering the house with tarps to protect it from further rain damage, the group camped out with the Freid’s on their property.   

Sunday morning, they headed for an emergency recovery location near Rushford, Minn.  After dawning face masks and picking up tools, the group spent the day cleaning up and helping repair damaged homes. 

“The outsides of the houses were deceptively clean, but you could see the water mark about one foot from the base of the second story of each of the houses,” Brandon Drazich from SJU Campus Ministry said.  “We saw the real damage once we got inside, where everything had to be torn out down to the studs holding up the house.”

The following students to part in the project: Brandon Drazich '09, Matthew Ott '08, Ben Demarais '08, John Friel, Mollie McCarty '08, Carolyn Haupert '10, Stephanie Rothstein '08, Jacob Kruger '09, Jeremy Bydlon '09, Natalie Ulrich '08, and Leo Chen '11.

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