CSU alumni walk to raise money for displaced family
Aaron Hedge
Issue date: 6/18/08 Section: News
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Vrettos and Farrell had spent most of the month homeless, walking from the border of New Mexico northward to raise money to build a house for a New Orleans family displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
But now, as they hiked County Road 17 from Johnstown, they also offered their help to the landlord of the tornado-ravaged house, John Hussar.
The two CSU graduates were unemployed, and Vrettos was homeless -- except for a minivan and a Jeep that accompanied them on the trip for emergencies.
"I don't have a job right now, so I'm available," Farrell, a natural resource management graduate told Hussar, offering to put a crew together to help rebuild the house that he had been renting to another family.
Hussar thanked them for the offer, but declined, saying with disappointment, "They'll probably just bulldoze it."
Later, as they continued up the dirt road, Vrettos outlined her unique situation to the Collegian. She had given up her home in Fort Collins to spend the time it would take to raise the $93,500 to put toward one for a family in New Orleans.
And on May 24, the occupational therapy graduate was offering her help to repair a destroyed home in northern Colorado, where, just two days before, six devastating tornados ripped through hundreds of homes, tore age-old trees out of the ground and caused nearly $150 million in damage around Weld County.
The women's primary goal, however, was still to carry out the mission to provide at least one destitute family in New Orleans with shelter.
As for food and living expenses while they were on the road, the women paid out of their own pockets, using money they had saved from day jobs before they began the effort.
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