A group of students from the Langston University at Ardmore nursing program recently spent some time caring for others in a slightly different way than they are used to.
After a devastating tornado struck Marietta in the late hours of Saturday, April 27, five students volunteered their time passing out supplies on Wednesday, May 1.
Several of the students live in Marietta and commute to Ardmore for class. One of the commuters, junior Mayte Salazar, explained why they wanted to volunteer.
“I think it’s always nice to unite during rough times, and I think we were all glad to help our community,” she said.
Another student described what their day of volunteering entailed.
“We had a drive through process in our fair building with a lot of donations that came in,” said junior Yoselin Sanchez. “So we helped separate things into different categories. Then the cars would drive through the barn, and they would tell us what they needed. We had it prepared in bags, so we gave them what they asked for.”
Junior Yaslin Sanchez talked about the different categories of items.
“In one section we had things like diapers and baby food,” she said. “Then in another, we had nonperishable food items like mac and cheese. We also had water bottles and Gatorade, cleaning products, hygiene products, first aid items. Basically, anything you might need in the aftermath of a disaster, we had it to give out.”
Though senior Ethan Lyles is from Ardmore, he still felt strongly about going to Marietta to help out.
“The more hands you have helping, the easier it is on everyone,” Lyles said. “I also wanted to be there to help out a community that lost so much, including their hospital and primary source of groceries.”
Langston University at Ardmore Academic Advisor Jennifer Doby said Lyles actually stayed the longest of all the students, from around 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Doby also pointed out the students served a valuable function as translators.
“A large portion of the Marietta community is Spanish speaking, so a lot of them acted as translators,” she said. “They were really great with working with their community as translators, and the people really trusted them.”
It is important to remember that all of this – the tornado, the aftermath, and the volunteer work – all took place during finals week, and the Marietta students were all without power at their homes. This made studying a challenge.
“Our instructors were very understanding and pushed our finals back to that Thursday,” said Yaslin Sanchez.
“After we went volunteering, we went to our local library which actually had power,” Yoselin Sanchez said. “So we had a little study session there to prepare.”
Doby said that all the students ended up passing the finals and the semester as a whole. Several students even made the Dean’s List.
“We’re so proud of this group,” Doby said. “They’re amazing students and will be amazing nurses.”
