Less than a week after Regent opened its doors to a new school year Robertson Hall found itself eerily empty as Hurricane Irene blew through Virginia Beach.
While most law students considered Monday, Aug. 29th’s school closing a good excuse to sleep in, hang out, or get ahead on some reading, many Regent students took the opportunity to participate in hurricane relief.
1L Timothy Chiasson, who moved to Virginia less than a month ago, was just one of many students that teamed up with CBN’s Operation Blessing (OB) to help the local Hampton Roads community.
A Florida native, Chaisson is no stranger to the dangers of these powerful storms, and the necessity of recovery teams.
“I’ve been through storms myself in Florida and I helped out with Katrina in New Orleans, so I know what it’s like to have tree damage and flooding damage and I figured that there were people that needed help.”
Nicole Tutrani, another first year law student, started her day off by putting together and handing out food baskets at a local food pantry and praying with the people who came in to pick them up. Afterward, she made her way to the home of another widow who needed help clearing a fallen tree.
“When I found out that we had a day off I was praising the Lord that I would get some extra sleep and a head start on my next assignments,” said Tutrani. After trying to convince herself that a new law student should take advantage of any extra time they are given, Nicole had a change of heart. “I realized that with the kind of work law students and lawyers have in general, I could make excuses for the rest of my life not to serve in times of need. I finally just had to make the choice to serve God and his people instead of myself—and it was an incredibly rewarding experience,” she concluded.
“I just think it’s pretty awesome that instead of sleeping in or going to the beach the Regent University students decided to come out and help people,” said OB’s U.S. Director of Disaster Relief Jody Herrington-Gettys in an interview with CBN. “They’re giving back to their community. I think it says a lot about the heart of the students and the heart of the school.”
- By Molly Eccles