The ASU police department started a donation drive for the victims of Hurricane Harvey and all items will be provided to Rockport, Texas.
The donation drive will last through Sept. 30 and a drop-off center can be found on all four major ASU campuses. Students can make donations Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
ASU police department spokesperson Katy Harris said the drive started at the inquiry of an officer.
“Last week, Wednesday afternoon I received an email from one of our officers,” Harris said. “He wanted to know if anyone in our department was doing anything about donations for Hurricane Harvey.”
Harris said she contacted other departments at ASU to see if anyone was making contributions to victims of the hurricane, but it seemed like nobody had started any type of event.
“The response that I got made me believe that nobody was doing anything, so I thought we should be the ones to do it then,” Harris said.
Harris said students were quick to participate in the drive, and that ASU police immediately received donations on each of the campuses.
“Donations started coming in right away,” Harris said. “Within two days, the room where we are keeping our donations on the ASU Tempe campus started getting full and you couldn’t even walk through the door.”
ASU police has partnered with Stream Logistics and Gulfport Police Department of Mississippi to safely deliver all donations down to Rockport, Texas.
“When people drop an item off here, Stream Logistics will send a truck twice a week to pick up from all four locations," Harris said.
Harris said Gulfport police will then bring semi trucks to meet with Stream Logistics west of Houston and they will travel to Rockport, Texas together.
Samantha Hernandez, Graduate Professional Students Association president and Ph.D. political science student, is from Gregory, Texas, and has family living in Houston and Rockport.
Hernandez started a donation drive with campus organizations such as the Sun Devil Fitness Complex, Undergraduate Student Government and the Graduate and Professional Student Association.
“My family in south Texas have experienced heavy water damage and wind damage,” Hernandez said. “They went 13 days without electricity.”
Hernandez said she is worried about her family and is affected especially because of her attachment to the area.
“Everyone has seen pictures, but when you are from that area it’s more that that,” Hernandez said. “It’s places that have shaped your life.”
Hernandez said she is doing everything she can to help those affected by Hurricane Harvey, and is asking for the help of others.
“Anything they can donate is necessary — think about how it would feel in that situation,” Hernandez said. “As humans we should help one another out.”
Dylan Carter, a sports journalism sophomore, was at the ASU Downtown drop-off center donating a box of trash bags.
“There’s so much craziness going on in the world right now, donating something was the least I could do,” Carter said.
Carter said he hopes if he were caught in some kind of disaster, people would do the same to help him.
“These people got blindsided by a random incident, they have to be helped,” Carter said. "If I was caught in a hurricane, I’d hope that people would help me out too.”
Reach the reporter at Victor.ren@asu.edu or follow @MrVictorRen on Twitter.
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