University of Virginia Library

President Asks Students
To Aid In Flood Relief

A number of our students and faculty members resident in the
Charlottesville area between the summer and fall sessions have done an
excellent job in organizing and developing the "University Flood Relief
Committee" to provide assistance to the people of Nelson County and
Southern Albemarle County in the aftermath of the disastrous flooding
there. A daily bus for workers carries volunteers to the areas, and is met
by local officials who have developed well-thought-out plans for each
day's work.

I write you now because for the next two weeks volunteer workers
for cleanup projects, particularly in Nelson County, are urgently
needed; I hope that by telephone or personal conversation you can
advise as many of the faculty and students of your department whom
you know to be now in the Charlottesville area that any one day's
service would be deeply appreciated by our stricken neighbors.

The number of students and faculty members in Charlottesville who
will be on the official University address lists by the last part of this
month will be more than 10,000; it should then be possible to keep an
adequate flow of volunteer workers moving into the stricken areas
under the aegis of the University Flood Relief Committee. Also, by that
time we should have the outlines of a long term "Nelson Reconstruction
Project," involving the research, teaching, and service by many of the
University's academic departments and service bureaus.

Volunteers for immediate work may obtain information at St.
Thomas' Catholic Church, from faculty members John Israel or
Alexander Sedgwick, or from the Assistant Dean of Student Affairs,
Robert Canevari, whom I have appointed as the University's official
liasion with the University Flood Relief Committee.