Students from four schools join forces to help storm victims
Tuscaloosa News – July 23
It may be the only day of the year that students from Kent State University, the University of Alabama, Auburn University and Auburn University Montgomery all play on the same team. But on Friday, students from the four schools worked hand in hand in the Holt community building two Habitat for Humanity houses funded by Nick and Terry Saban’s foundation, Nick’s Kids … Alan Ashby, assistant athletic director at Kent State, said he and the four football players who made the trip felt a calling to help Tuscaloosa. “Coach Saban and his wife were graduates of Kent State,” he said. “It felt natural for us. It was obvious that Tuscaloosa needed help, but until you are here and see the devastation, it is hard to believe …Wahnee Sherman, director of UA’s Community Service Center, said about 75 students from the four schools volunteered Friday. The project broke ground July 18 and is expected to be finished sometime in September. Sherman said UA and AU had planned 18 months ago to build a house in Baldwin County, but when the April 27 storm hit, they changed the site location …
Birmingham News – July 23
Tuscaloosa News – July 24
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – July 22
FOX 6 (Birmingham) – July 22
NBC 13 (Birmingham) – July 22
WHNT (Huntsville) – July 23
June saw area, state jobless rates rise
Tuscaloosa News – July 23
… Ahmad Ijaz, an economist at the University of Alabama’s Center for Business and Economic Research, said unemployment is rising as more people lose their unemployment benefits. He said he expects the unemployment rate to edge slightly higher in coming months as more people enter the labor market. “June numbers are also always impacted by seasonal factors — school closings, high school students looking for summer jobs, college graduates,” he said. “It was a little different for Tuscaloosa. Our unemployment rate went up not because there were more people looking for work or entering the labor force, it was mainly due to an increase in the number of unemployed, it very well could be the lagging effects of the tornadoes.”…
Birmingham News – July 24
Seniors after the storm
Tuscaloosa News – July 24
… For people who are old or frail, any kind of change is stressful, and the older you are, the harder it is to bounce back from stress,” said Patricia Parmelee, psychologist and director of the University of Alabama’s Center for Mental Health and Aging. Even under normal circumstances, relocating, whether to another town or into an assisted-living facility, can be a strain for people who are elderly, but the sudden loss of a home or normalcy from something as abrupt and destructive as the tornado may be too much stress, Parmelee said … Parmelee, who researches elderly care and mental health, said the storm left people of all ages with a sense of loss of control over life, but it’s a feeling that can be acute for the elderly who are further stressed by having to depend, willingly or not, on others to make decisions for them. Families with elderly members struggling after the storm can help by giving the elderly an active voice in decision-making, and try to return as much as possible to a normal life, she said. “It’s not surprising to hear stories like this, but it’s heartbreaking,” Parmelee said. “Unfortunately, there is not a lot we can do about it.”
Twitter, younger faces transforming sports landscape
The (Columbus, Ind.) Republic – July 24
…”I kept thinking something more sophisticated would take the place of Twitter, but it hasn’t,” chuckled sports media expert Andrew Billings, recently appointed the Ronald Reagan Endowed Chair in Broadcasting at the University of Alabama’s College of Communication … “With websites or press releases or any other formal structure, the perception was you’re not getting the information from the athlete unfiltered,” Billings said. “It was through a PR person or whatever. With Twitter, if you see something from Shaq, it’s from Shaq.” …
Is Zambooki the next Google?
Tuscaloosa News – July 24
… The success of Zambooki.com will depend on how many people and businesses go to the website. “The formula for a web business is not that different from a traditional business. They have to make sure their revenues exceed their costs,” said Louis Marino, a University of Alabama management professor who specializes in entrepreneurship. Websites that rely on outside advertising for revenue need to have a critical mass of users to attract advertisers, he said. New websites need to get the word out about what they offer and build a following, something Zambooki.com can potentially do, he said …
EDITORIAL: Mercedes-Benz helps drive area to better times
Tuscaloosa News – July 25
…We’ve also been blessed by the growing enrollment, and related expansions, at the University of Alabama. So why are unemployment rates going the wrong way? Economists at the University of Alabama Center for Business and Economic Research say part of it is seasonal — businesses and public institutions cut back while students are away for the summer — and part of it is likely because of the lingering effects of the tornadoes. Hundreds of businesses were damaged or destroyed, and that kind of strain is difficult to overcome …
Donations of supplies, time pour in for local schools
Tuscaloosa News – July 25
… Frannie James, an instructor in the University of Alabama’s global studies and international honors programs, is volunteering between 40 and 50 hours a week to help the Tuscaloosa City School System organize its donations. She said a high school football team drove from Kentucky to help volunteers in the Tuscaloosa City Schools’ donation center move pallets of supplies before they got back on the road to return home … The response locally has been amazing as well, James said. “We’ve had over 10,000 volunteer hours by hundreds of volunteers,” she said. “We’ve had some individuals in Tuscaloosa that may have put in 80 hours by just giving up a morning a week, every week, to help.”…
Scholarship Fund Has Been Established in Memory of UA Student, Ashley Harrison
KDFW (Dallas, Tex.) – July 22
KXAS (Dallas, Tex.) – July 22
A scholarship fund will honor the memory of a college student from Dallas who died in this spring’s deadly tornado outbreak. Ashley Harrison was an Ursuline Academy graduate and senior at the University of Alabama …
Two UA Students Start Organization Called “Taking Back Tuscaloosa”
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – July 22
Two University of Alabama students have joined together to help rebuild Tuscaloosa one step at a time. Zarah Trinh and Kyle Rice have partnered together to start Taking Back Tuscaloosa, an organization to help raise funds towards rebuilding Tuscaloosa …
Overland Park 5K race raises $10,000 for Alabama tornado victims
Kansas City (Mo.) Star – July 24
… Neeb, a Blue Springs High School graduate who attends the University of Alabama, rode out the April 27 Tuscaloosa tornado huddled in a dorm bathroom. Sarah Buschmann, a Blue Valley West High School graduate, watched debris spinning as the tornado approached a friend’s second-floor apartment in Tuscaloosa. The girls, both freshmen at the university, emerged unscathed, but many other students and university employees suffered severe losses from the twister that tore through the city. Within a few weeks, the two girls and three other UA students — Lindsey Green, Abby Jewell and Kat O’Halloran, who all live in the Kansas City area — were planning a 5-kilometer run and walk here to raise money for those in need …The run raised more than $10,380 for the Acts of Kindness Fund at the University of Alabama, set up to assist faculty, staff and students affected by the tornado …
WDAF (Kansas City, Mo.) – July 22
UA runs free nutrition camp for kids as part of study
Tuscaloosa News – July 23
The University of Alabama’s Institute for Communication and Information Research will conduct a free nutrition camp as part of a research study on what children think about food, advertisements and video games. The camp will also teach children how to make healthy lifestyle choices to prevent childhood and adult obesity…