IFC cleans up Tuscaloosa tornado ruin

Thousands of UCF students spent the week before school started preparing for the new semester, but 36 of them spent the week among wrecked cars, a fast food sign, pieces of a billboard and dirty stuffed animals.

That hodgepodge of items was just a fraction of the debris that surrounded members of the Interfraternity Council at UCF during their 2nd Annual IFC Building Leadership Service Conference in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

IFC President Adam Brock said the group chose Tuscaloosa because of the devastation brought upon the city by the reported mile-wide tornado that touched ground shortly after 5 p.m. on April 27.

"I feel as though, throughout the university system, we should all be very respectful, especially when something happens to another college or university, and go and try to aid them," said Brock, who also cofounded the conference. "University of Alabama lost a few students, and if something like that ever happened to UCF, I would hope that other people would do the same."

After the 10-hour bus drive to the tornado-ravaged Tuscaloosa, the IFC members spent the next few days cleaning up the areas where three mobile homes had once been.

IFC Vice President of Public Relations Joshua ‘J.D.' Crouch said the group was unsure what they would find after some of the tales they had heard.

"We heard horror stories about how children's dead bodies were just laying out in the streets, and people had to search through rubble to find their kids, find their mothers, find their husbands," Crouch said.

While the group fortunately didn't find anything that horrific, they did find a community that had come together in a time of lingering tragedy.

"The way the community came together, they were telling us a lot about how the suffering wasn't as great as the bond; it really brought the community together," Crouch said.

IFC's New Member Education Chair Elliot Citrano was also inspired by the community's resilience to the ruin he and the others observed.

"We were driving down some roads and there'd be entire blocks where all you see is just the dirt on the ground, no bricks, no signs, nothing," said Citrano, who is also the philanthropy chair of the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity.

While there, Citrano met with a friend of his, a student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who sometimes forgot just how much the tornado took from them.

"When we were deciding where to go out to eat, he was like ‘Oh, this place is great. Oh wait, sorry, they're not in business anymore,'" Citrano said.

Beta Theta Pi sophomore Carter Hamlin chose to attend because he felt he could relate to how much a disaster almost 300 miles away from there affected his family.

"I had family in New Orleans when Katrina hit…so I knew kind of what it feels like to have your family members exposed to that," Hamlin said. "So I really wanted to just help out as much as I could."

Whether or not the members could relate to the situation, Brock said it did establish some common ground among the group.

"I think that once we saw our first day's work, how devastating this tornado was, I think it really started opening some eyes and made everyone grateful for what we have here in Orlando," Brock said.

In addition to developing a stronger appreciation for the campus they call home, it was the growth of the attendees that Crouch was thankful for.

"There were a lot of stereotypes that were around before then, and I think we did a lot to break those down, as well as educate people in the way other Greek systems work in other states," Crouch said. "I think a lot of men grew up over that trip and sort of reassessed what was important for their organizations and for their school, and that's the best thing we can hope for. Overall, I think beyond what we gave Tuscaloosa, I think that Tuscaloosa really gave a lot back to us."