March 2, 2006
With blessings, brown T-shirts and newly bestowed Tau crosses, BonaResponds is ready to serve!
BonaResponds has already experienced a great deal of support from students, faculty, staff, family, alumni and community. The Chapel was overflowing at the Ash Wednesday service commissioned for those traveling to Louisiana and Mississippi. Along with ashes, the cross of St. Francis, the Tau cross, was given as a blessing to those participating in service over the break.
Tomorrow afternoon more than 200 members of the St. Bonaventure community will gather outside of the Reilly Center for the final farewell.
Currently BonaResponds has 281 people who are traveling to five different sites- New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish in Louisiana an
d Biloxi, Bay St. Louis and Long Beach in Mississippi.
Jeffrey Butler, a freshman from New Port, N.Y., is eager to get down to Mississippi where he will be at the Bay St. Louis site. Jeffrey wants to do more than just help; he wants to touch people’s lives. He hopes to gain a sense of fulfillment as well as new perspective from this experience, “They say you can’t really understand how much devastation there is and you have to see it firsthand to do it justice.”
Full of hope, enthusiastically 
ambitious and motivated to make a difference, the members of BonaResponds represent the true essence of St. Bonaventure University.
Load up the vans and board the buses. It's time for the largest service trip in the history of the university!
SBU Responds to Katrina
Countdown! | On the Road | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5