Thomas Turner sat glued to his television last week as he watched Hurricane Katrina rip apart the Gulf Coast.
Struck with grief at Katrina's wrath, Turner turned off the television and decided to do something about it.
"I figured I could get off my fat butt and see if anyone feels how I do," the education doctoral student said.
The result was ASU's Hurricane Relief Day, taking place on Sept. 14. Turner organized the event to promote awareness and raise money for the Red Cross National Disaster Relief Fund.
He said the event will consist of donation stations at every building on campus run by different student organizations.
At the stations, student organizations will collect any donations students can spare -- from dollar bills to pocket change.
"We're just trying to bring all the groups together," he said. "I don't think anything has been done on campus this widespread."
Approximately five organizations already contacted Turner about being involved in the relief efforts, but many more are still needed as he hoped to have one organization for every campus building, he said.
GPSA Vice President Destiny Crider, an anthropology graduate student, was the first to get involved in Turner's Hurricane Relief Day.
Crider said she first heard of the relief efforts when Turner contacted GPSA to send the information out over its listserv.
"I just suggested the possible avenue of getting student organizations involved," she said. "We made it sort of a student initiative."
Crider said GPSA would be "sponsoring" the Student Services Center during the donation drive.
"We'll probably use this as a primary outlet for fund raising," she said.
Turner said his goal for Hurricane Relief Day is to raise $60,000 -- $1 for each person on campus.
"What that $1 can do is huge," he added.
While Turner said he hopes students would forgo their daily coffees and donate that money to hurricane relief instead, any donation amount is encouraged.
"My first donation was just 20 cents," he said. "But I still have that 20 cents, and it is going into the fund."
In addition to the donation stations around campus, Turner said he would ask other organizations to utilize events already planned for the day, including PAB's concert series, to promote awareness of the fund raising efforts.
"It's a chance to show what we as students can do," Turner said.
Jennifer Stults, assistant to the vice president of Student Affairs, said many students have come forward on campus to help.
"We were definitely supportive of them creating their own initiative," she said.
But students aren't the only ones on campus getting involved in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.
ASU administration worked to admit and house about 60 students displaced from Gulf Coast colleges to ASU, Lou Ann Denny from ASU's Registrar Office said.
Also, the ASU offices of Student Affairs and Undergraduate Admissions are holding a special mini-orientation session for these students Thursday, similar to Sun Devil 101, Stults said.
"This would provide these students the opportunity to connect with students in a similar situation," Stults said. "They can learn about programs, resources and services available on the ASU campus."
Stults said ASU's counseling and consultation services are also holding walk-in discussion groups for those affected by the hurricane. And the administration created a registry of people willing to house visitors for the ASU and Louisiana State University football game.
Saturday's game was moved to ASU from Baton Rouge, where thousands of hurricane victims are gathering.
ASU head football coach Dirk Koetter bought 55 tickets to the game for the displaced students of Tulane who transferred to ASU. Koetter also worked with Nike to give the students ASU hats, according to an e-mail from Athletic Department spokesman Mark Brand.
"There are many different ways that the University is getting involved," Stults said. "There are almost too many things to list."
Reach the reporter at tara.brite@asu.edu.
