Outreach Assistance Initiative

Law Students Help Flood Victims

More than 225 law students and faculty members from the Campbell University, Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law in North Carolina spent the day helping those whose homes and businesses were devastated by Hurricane Floyd last October.

On Oct. 12, the volunteers loaded buses at 7 a.m. for the two-hour trip to Tarboro, N.C. After arriving at the First Baptist Disaster Distribution Center, the students presented the principal of Princeville Elementary School and school children with 300 Dr. Seuss books donated by First Union Corporation. The school had been completely destroyed by the flood.

The future lawyers, who had already raised $1,000 to go directly to the victims of Hurricane Floyd, then donated a far more special gift—their time and their muscle—at several locations in the surrounding areas. More than 150 of the students, under the direction of the Salvation Army, spent the day cleaning up homes and churches that were virtually destroyed in one of the areas hardest hit by the flooding.

Nearly 50 more students spent the day in the disaster distribution center, helping to sort, organize, and distribute food and other items. Other students helped their professors at the area courthouse and law offices in an effort to get the legal community in Tarboro back on its feet.

"The students at Campbell law school are committed not only to excellence in the law, but also to the principle of public service," says Casey Viser, president of Campbell’s student bar association. "We have a strong sense of civic duty, and we are here to help because we care."

The ABA’s Law Student Division provided $500 to the project through its Outreach Assistance Initiative (OAI) fund. Donations from the fund and the North Carolina Bar Association were used to rent the buses to transport students. •