Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Resilience of Gustavus

The Gustie community knows how to come together and persevere during hard times! "At 5:29 p.m. on March 29, 1998, an F-3 tornado ripped through Saint Peter, Minn., causing more than $120 million in damages, destroying approximately 400 homes, and taking the life of one boy.

By 9 p.m., the American Red Cross was setting up shelters in the broken community, eventually bringing in 600 workers from 32 states and serving over 40,000 meals as the town worked to recover. More than 10,000 people volunteered to help the Saint Peter community cleanup and rebuild following the tornado, which was part of a record-breaking March supercell thunderstorm that spawned 14 tornadoes in Minnesota." 




Fast forward to spring of 2020, and once again our community faces adversity, along with the world,  dealing with the COVID pandemic. In the spring we headed home, and as a team and community stayed connected over regular zoom sessions. Fast forward again, to the beginning of the 2020 Fall semester, and only First Year and Transfer students were on campus for 3 weeks. This incoming class had a big task ahead of them, keep outbreaks limited and covid numbers low, and all the other class years would be allowed back to campus. This class and community showed once again, when we come together (even socially distant) we can achieve our goals. The first year class did a phenomenal job adhering to guidelines/ protocols, and the upperclassmen were welcomed back to campus towards the end of September. Now, well into October, we are again floored by the resiliency and compassion of the Gustavus community. By conforming to protocols and remembering the bigger picture, we have kept our COVID numbers relatively low, and as a team, we have not had anyone test positive. We are so proud of not only this team, but also to be part of the Gustavus community, and staying together to achieve our goals.






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