Concordia College

Cobbers on the Front Line of Flood Protection

• Concordia students were the first to join the volunteer effort, while NDSU and MSUM were on spring break. Our students stepped in Friday, March 20 as preparations began. Volunteers started coming in waves that weekend and have continued daily.
• Hundreds of Cobbers reported to Nemzek Monday and Tuesday, contributing to the more than 4,000 volunteers dispatched by FirstLink each day. They were at the ready Wednesday when the call went out again.
• The college canceled classes all week, urging students, faculty and staff to help with the flood preparation.
• Dining Services prepared more than 600 sandwiches Tuesday and about 950 sandwiches Wednesday for volunteers. One thousand bottles of water, chips and cookies were also supplied.
• Many of our athletic teams were quick to participate. The football team built dikes for one house after another on River Drive in South Moorhead and both soccer teams helped protect an entire neighborhood against a flooding coulee.
• Alumni from hundreds of miles away returned to their Cobber home to help community members save their properties.
• Students hauled furniture from several home basements to help homeowners.
• Concordia will be housing AmeriCorp volunteers on campus for four to six weeks.
• The college is running a dozen shuttles more than 12 hours a day, transporting Concordia volunteers as well as partnering with the city to drive other community members.
• More than 45 faculty, staff and students are volunteering to drive the shuttles.
• Several faculty have served as site supervisors, coordinating sandbaggers.