Morgan Students Work to Lift Spirits in Gulf Region

A number of students from Morgan State University are traveling to New Orleans in a humanitarian effort to help improve the lives of citizens in the area who were impacted by Hurricane Katrina. Several students will spend their spring break participating in “Katrina on the Ground,” a program for students to assist in clean-up and restoration efforts in storm-damaged areas. In addition, the Morgan State University choir will travel to New Orleans to present “A Musical Tribute to Hope & Heroes” – a concert for Katrina victims at Christ Church Cathedral on Thursday, March 23, 2006 at 6:00 p.m.

On Sunday, March 19, 2006, eight students from the university will leave Thurgood Marshall BWI Airport to travel to the Gulf Region. The students will be primarily involved with assisting hurricane victims in cleaning up damaged property, and helping to salvage items from homes until Saturday, March 25, 2006.Their trip is made possible in part by the generosity of Southwest Airlines.

No stranger to the south, the Morgan State University choir has toured the region during students’ spring break for a number of years. This year, the choir will visit Mississippi, Georgia and Alabama prior to performing in New Orleans. Members of the choir will also tour several areas devastated by the hurricane, including a local hospital, Xavier University, Dillard University, Southern University at New Orleans and the Ninth Ward; home to much of the devastation caused by the hurricane.

“Ever since Katrina, I have often talked about how the choir might contribute to helping the residents of New Orleans rebuild both physically and spiritually,” said Dr. Eric Conway, director of the Morgan State University choir. “We are only too pleased to give in the only way that we can, through the special gift of music– to encourage and inspire the human spirit.”