Date: August 17, 2021
At 1:00 a.m. on August 15, in the midst of a torrential downpour, my phone rang. It was Chris Micklewright, our summer proctor, reporting that the two lower-level apartments in Maywood were flooding. Chris and the two couples, incoming students and their spouses, were frantically moving their most precious belongings to higher ground to keep them from being ruined.
While the fact that this flood happened was truly unfortunate and caused real hardship to these two families, what followed was an amazing demonstration of a community rallying to help in a crisis.
The Facilities staff was tremendous: John Erbe and Tim Lawhorn soon arrived, and were on the scene for most of the night pumping water out of the apartments. First thing in the morning, VP Jacqui Ballou, Admissions and Student Housing Director Derek Greten-Harrison, and Jeff Harre, who covers emergency needs for guest housing, began strategizing on how to house the displaced families. Then Chris and proctor Amanda Dosher put out the call for people to come help the families move to their new quarters.
At 3:00 p.m. a large contingent of students, family members, and staff turned up and moved both families to new accommodations in less than two hours. It was an impressive display of this community at its best. As Chris said to one incoming student who was marveling at it: “Community is a big part of what VTS is all about, and this is an early demonstration of what that means.”
I came away from the day feeling so proud to be part of the VTS community.
Ruthanna Hooke, Ph.D.
Associate Dean of Students