The Gift of Giving

December 7, 2007

Alicia Duplessis
aduples@tulane.edu

A student group at Tulane hopes to raise enough funds to help a university housekeeper rebuild her Katrina-damaged home.

Margarita Rounds, a housekeeper in the Lavin-Bernick Center for University Life, says that she was overcome with joy when she learned that the Student Advocacy for Equitable Recovery (SAFER) organization wanted to help her rebuild. Now 60, Rounds says that she moved to the New Orleans area from South America when she was 14 years old.

“I’m living in one side of my house because I didn’t have enough money to fix both sides,” says Rounds. “Housekeeping is not an easy thing, but it feels good to know the students care enough to want to help me.”

According to Patrick Boyle, a Tulane alumnus and SAFER volunteer, the group is asking each department on campus for help in spreading the word about the fund-raiser by posting signs and sending e-mail messages. Donation jars also are scattered around campus to make donating easy for those on the go.

“We need $10,000 to finish Margarita’s house, and we’ve decided to focus our fund-raiser toward Tulane faculty and students,” says Boyle. “We are leaning on the Tulane community. If every person on campus would donate $1 or $2, we’d have the money we need.”

The organization plans to donate $2,000 in grant money they have already received to go toward Rounds’ renovations, bringing the total amount needed from campus donors to $8,000.

Jim Coningsby, a student and co-founder of SAFER, says that the organization began as a result of Hurricane Katrina. It comprises student volunteers as well as six full-time AmeriCorps volunteers. The organization contributes to the city’s rebuilding efforts by providing free labor. In most instances, residents only are asked to provide their own supplies.

The team has gutted 85 houses and completed a total of 14 rebuild projects since May 2006, Coningsby says.

“We have moved six families back in (to their homes) and have four more we are hoping we can get in by Christmas,” says Coningsby. “We’ve had over 900 Tulane students volunteer with us and an additional 200 or so students from other colleges.”

The organization began fund raising in November for Rounds’ renovation and hopes to raise the remaining needed funds in time to begin working on the project after Christmas.

“These kids are so wonderful,” says Rounds, thankfully. “I wish I could adopt them all.”

Donations may be made in Rounds’ name at the group’s click-and-pledge site or by mail to 7534A Burthe St., New Orleans, LA 70118.