Many of you will recall our horrible loss when the bonfire collapsed killing 12 Aggies and injuring many others. People asked why build a bonfire, it is dangerous, wasted time, just kind of silly.<br /><br />We answered if you do not know we can not explain the Aggie spirit. Maybe this letter does a good job of explaining the spirit of the young men and women of Texas A&M and that Aggie Spirit.<br /><br />To: Faculty, Students and Staff<br />><br />>Subject: Relief Efforts at Texas A&M<br />><br />>The Corps of Cadets was asked on Friday afternoon to set up several<br />>hundred beds on the floor of Reed Arena; to help establish a structure<br />>for processing the evacuees; to make arrangements for them to shower and<br />>get new clothes; to help develop a process for medical checks; and so<br />>on. Lt. General Van Alstyne asked the Corps Commander, Matt Ockwood,<br />>for 300 volunteers to do these tasks. 900 cadets volunteered, and Reed<br />>Arena was ready after the cadets worked all night.<br />><br />>The first evacuees began to arrive around midnight Saturday. They had<br />>boarded busses in New Orleans that morning, had been driven to Dallas<br />>and then finally to College Station - all in one day. Of the more than<br />>200 arrivals, most were families, including some 40 children and a<br />>number of elderly. They arrived exhausted, dirty, hungry and many in<br />>despair.<br />><br />>They then encountered an Aggie miracle. Clean beds (not cots but<br />>surplus beds from a refurbished Corps dorm), showers, hot food, medical<br />>treatment, baby supplies for mothers, toys for children and more. But<br />>most of all, what they encountered were a couple of hundred<br />>compassionate, caring Aggie cadets and other volunteers. The cadets<br />>escorted them to their assigned beds, and not only saw to their<br />>individual needs, but sat on the side of their beds with them, talked<br />>with them - treated them like they were a member of the family. The<br />>cadets made them feel welcome and cared about.<br />><br />>Sunday, when I visited Reed, I learned that the women of the Aggie Dance<br />>Team had organized and were running a distribution center for pillows,<br />>towels, bedding, personal hygiene kits, baby food, diapers and much<br />>more; that sorority women were running a child care facility for dozens<br />>of children, well supplied with toys, juice, coloring books and cartoon<br />>videos; and that plans were under way for other student leaders and<br />>students to replace the cadets, some of whom had been at Reed for more<br />>than 50 hours. Plans were underway for some of our athletes (and<br />>escorts) to take some of the evacuee boys ages 10-16 to the Rec Center<br />>to shoot hoops - boys perhaps including one I met who had treaded water<br />>under a bridge for 11 hours before being rescued by a helicopter.<br />><br />>Seeing the desire to serve, the organizational skill, the willingness to<br />>work, the caring and compassion, and more, on the part of the Corps of<br />>Cadets, the Dance Team, the sororities and so many other students who<br />>have worked incredibly long hours - has been a profoundly moving<br />>experience. I do not know a single University official who, having<br />>watched our students over the past three days, does not choke up with<br />>emotion out of pride in these amazing young people.<br />><br />>It is also our staff, including those who today began admitting and<br />>helping up to 1,000 students displaced by the Hurricane. Faculty and<br />>administrators have volunteered as well, and also put in long hours to<br />>ensure that these displaced students can be processed into Texas A&M and<br />>their classes with speed and efficiency.<br />><br />>Aggies often speak of "the other education" here. My original intent<br />>had been to keep the evacuees entirely isolated from our students. Once<br />>assured of the safety of the students, that would have been the wrong<br />>decision. I have no doubt that the Aggie students who are participating<br />>in this extraordinary humanitarian endeavor will never forget it -- or<br />>what they are learning from it about crisis management and, far more<br />>importantly, about their own humanity and character. Nor do I doubt<br />>that the evacuees, all of whom are now wearing Texas A&M t- shirts, will<br />>always remember how these young people treated them and cared for them.<br />><br />><br />>I thanked a University policeman inside Reed yesterday for what he was<br />>doing, and he looked at me with tears in his eyes and replied, "It's an<br />>honor to be here, sir."<br />><br />>Robert M. Gates<br />>President, Texas A&M University
