Norwich community helps Northfield rebuild

Since Tropical Storm Irene's devastating visit to Vermont at the beginning of the academic year, roughly 1,000 Norwich students have contributed more than 4,000 volunteer hours to the relief effort, according to Nicole DiDomenico, director of Norwich's center for civic engagement and campus climate.

"At 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. was the first start time each day, and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. was the second shift each day for two weeks, and we sent volunteers over each of those shifts" said DiDomenico.

"In about a month's time our students have contributed about 4,000 hours of service," said DiDomenico, "which is staggering, really, when you think about it, but knowing how service oriented our students are it really shouldn't come to anyone's surprise."

The Norwich effort came from many quarters, including Sodexo, students, faculty and facilities operations.

"Sodexo provided so many meals to community members and volunteer members," explained DiDomenico. "Facility operations had donated both staff time and equipment, such as bucket loaders to clear out major areas."

As a result of this support, the relationship between the Northfield community and Norwich has improved, say administrators.

"In the past years it has been pretty rough between Northfield and Norwich," said Alexandria Manousos, the volunteer resource coordinator of the Center for Civic Engagement, "but after this tragic event it was finally realized that we may be a ruckus sometimes, but Norwich students are here to help and have no problem doing it." Manousos, 20, is a senior majoring in political science from Lowell, Mass.

The school's efforts have also been recognized by important figures outside the Northfield area. Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy complimented the school's efforts in helping the Northfield area, said Austin Brochetti, a 21-year-old senior civil engineering major from Wallkill, N.Y.

"(The senator) couldn't stop singing praises about us," said Brochetti, "How awesome it is that the entire town including the school came together to help the effort during the storm and even afterwards."

Brochetti is the company commander of Norwich University's Mountain Cold Weather unit (MCW). This special unit specializes in cold weather survival and rescue techniques.

MCW members were deployed into Northfield during the hurricane. They assisted local rescue units to assist with rescue and evacuation procedures, said Eric Birr, a 21-year-old health and science major from West Babylon, N.Y.

Brochetti met with Senator Leahy, along with a few other members of MCW, to survey the town after the storm.

"Monday or Tuesday, Mark Siegel and I, and a couple other Black Hats, went and talked with him in town." said Brochetti.

Black Hat is the title given to the members of MCW after the successful completion of their first year of training.

MCW also helped with the relief effort after the hurricane, particularly with cleaning up Wall Goldfinger, a local furniture manufacturer.

"The guys at Wall Goldfinger were real appreciative of us. Wall Goldfinger employs about 40 residence of Northfield," said Birr, "so the sooner they get their building back up and running the sooner those people get back to making money and put food back on their tables, which is huge."

It was this type of work that Senator Leahy was praising. It is also the type of assistance that many of the victims appreciate.

"The community effort afterward was great," said Kortnee Hill, a 22-year-old architecture graduate student. "I communicated a lot with the people who were bringing food, I think it was Sodexo."

Sodexo provided supplies such as food, toiletries and other needed items to storm victims. Sodexo also "set up a grill outside and were giving food to the volunteer workers and all the people who were displaced," said Hill.

Hill woke up the day of the storm to rescue workers asking her to evacuate her apartment just a few hours after she arrived from Florida.

"I felt so surreal how I just came from Florida, I ran away from the hurricane only to be hit in Vermont," said Hill. "You saw families walking around you know with little children, and animals too, I felt like I was in a third-world country afterwards."