Small N.D. chapter donates $1,000 to the AFT Disaster Relief Fund
Grand Forks members 'truly related with scenes' of destroyed homes and debris

The chapter of 154 members sold raffle tickets for authentic UND sports garb: a men’s hockey jersey and a men’s basketball jersey, both signed by team members and donated by the athletic department for the cause. The raffle winner was announced during the UND hockey game Feb. 18.

AFT members in North Dakota are all too familiar with the destructive force of Mother Nature. In April 1997, more than 60,000 residents of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks, Minn., were forced from their communities when the Red River crested at nearly 55 feet—more than 25 feet above flood stage.

“The people in Grand Forks truly related with the scenes we’ve seen from Katrina—the destruction of homes and the piles of debris,” says Bev Hopman, the chapter’s secretary-treasurer and an office manager in the athletic department. “There were not a ton of homes that were completely lost. There were, however, neighborhoods. People lost jobs. People lost homes. People lost friends because they moved away. It was a very difficult time. The city has recuperated but it will never be the same.”

Gerry Nies, an information technology specialist at the university and NDPEA vice president, says he was fortunate. His home sustained minimal damage from the flood—six feet of water in the basement. But, he notes, there are large areas of the community were “there were hundreds of homes that are no longer there because people were told they couldn’t rebuild.” The parts that were hardest hit, he says, were those areas with moderate income housing, affordable starter homes. “Those are gone and that is still affecting us today.”

As AFT members affected by the hurricanes continue the long process of re-establishing their lives and rebuilding their homes, Nies recalls that “there’s all this outpouring at the beginning. But it is months down the road that people really need the support and it is as much emotional support as it is financial support. That is when it really starts to hit what has happened.”

The chapter raised more than $900 through the raffle, and the chapter chipped in the rest to raise the donation to $1,000.