CSC stops, drops and lends a hand

Last week, students and staff did their part to help firefighters in need of housing as they came from cities all over to aid in the Crawford Post Fire.

On Thursday, Sept. 16, two wildfires broke out in Dawes and Scotts Bluff counties. The Post Fire located five miles south of Crawford, and the Vista Trend Fire, located southwest of Scottsbluff. Together, both fires have burned 8,234 acres.

Firefighters were called in from across Nebraska, including Hay Springs, Gordon-Rushville, Scottsbluff, Gering, Harrison and Chadron. As the fire spread fast, so did the need for assistance. The surrounding communities came together to support firefighters including CSC which stepped in to help by donating school mattresses, so they had somewhere to lay their heads.

Morgan Cullan, project coordinator of housing and residence life, came up with the idea to help the firefighters. She got the idea after she was contacted by a friend, a volunteer worker for the fire department who notified her that many firefighters were coming to town, but hotels were booked, and housing was scarce. 

 “Originally, I asked if we could house them on campus, but since it was a weekend, it would have been too challenging maneuvering firefighters through the halls,” Cullan said. 

That was when she suggested that the college could provide mattresses and house them in the fire hall. After getting approval from the director of housing, CSC was able to provide 27 beds.

Students on campus stepped in to move the donated mattresses from Kent Hall to trucks in the parking lot. Morgan asked a few students passing through Kent if they could tell a couple of friends about helping with the mattresses.

 “It didn’t take long for a group of people to jump on the assignment and lend a hand,” Cullan said. “It was amazing and I was so proud of the students.” 

The students even helped with the drop-off and return of the beds.

As of now, the fire is 100% contained and firefighters were grateful for Chadron State’s generosity. 

“I think, for example, doing something like this does really open up eyes to people in the community to say if this does occur again, we know where we can go,” Cullan said. “Just being strong community members, campus community members, is all it takes.”