President’s Message--September 2, 2005

All of us in the Lehigh community are shocked and saddened by the death and devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and other areas. Jean and I wanted to offer our own words of care and concern to all those impacted by the disaster, especially those from our own Lehigh family.
It’s important that you know that after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast states earlier this week, the Dean of Students Office moved to identify and personally reached out to the 11 Lehigh students known to have hometowns in the most affected states of Louisiana and Mississippi to offer support and assistance. We will continue to provide support to those and others on campus whose families have been affected by this terrible tragedy.
In true Lehigh style, many other members of our campus community have expressed interest in helping with the relief effort as well and are asking us how to do so. There are many agencies receiving and forwarding funds to support the relief activities. One option is to contribute through the American Red Cross of the Greater Lehigh Valley which is accepting contributions at:
Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund
American Red Cross
2200 Avenue A
Bethlehem, PA 18017
Donors are asked to make checks out to “American Red Cross,” with “Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund” on the memo line. Or you can make a secure online donation.
Other disaster relief organizations are accepting contributions as well. If interested, I encourage you to visit these Web sites:
Salvation Army
America’s Second Harvest
We encourage you to pay attention to future daily news postings to learn how you can help.
Our hopes and prayers are with all those who have been affected by this terrible national tragedy and I encourage you all to do whatever you are able to support those impacted by this disaster.
Greg Farrington
President, Lehigh University