NEW ORLEANS -
Just one or two days before Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans, incoming freshmen at Loyola University were about to get a crash course on hurricane evacuations.
The storm scattered students around the country. Universities did their best to accept the students who could not return to Loyola because the campus was closed for recovery work.
But eventually, Loyola - and its next door neighbor Tulane - reopened and students returned albeit at lower numbers than before the storm.
Last spring, the students who returned after the storm finally walked the stage to get their diplomas. For students at Loyola, the achievement - passing the ultimate test - inspired them to leave a Katrina-inspired gift for future students.
That gift is made of aluminum and is bolted to the ground in the Sculpture Garden inside one of the university's "quads". It's a bench, shaped like a hurricane symbol, with the names of more than 600 colleges and universities etched across its top.
"It was an organic process that kind of just developed," said artist David Borgerding who was asked by the seniors to build the bench. "At the end, it got so crazy I didn't even know how many hours or people (were involved)."
Katrina senior Veronica Sharkey said the gift is meant to inspire future classes and to say thanks.
"We wanted to find a way to really thank all the schools that helped us during Katrina," Sharkey said.
The storm scattered students around the country. Universities did their best to accept the students who could not return to Loyola because the campus was closed for recovery work.
But eventually, Loyola - and its next door neighbor Tulane - reopened and students returned albeit at lower numbers than before the storm.
Last spring, the students who returned after the storm finally walked the stage to get their diplomas. For students at Loyola, the achievement - passing the ultimate test - inspired them to leave a Katrina-inspired gift for future students.
That gift is made of aluminum and is bolted to the ground in the Sculpture Garden inside one of the university's "quads". It's a bench, shaped like a hurricane symbol, with the names of more than 600 colleges and universities etched across its top.
"It was an organic process that kind of just developed," said artist David Borgerding who was asked by the seniors to build the bench. "At the end, it got so crazy I didn't even know how many hours or people (were involved)."
Katrina senior Veronica Sharkey said the gift is meant to inspire future classes and to say thanks.
"We wanted to find a way to really thank all the schools that helped us during Katrina," Sharkey said.
