Sailors at Navy Medicine Training Support Center (NMTSC) in San Antonio delivered much needed supplies to Lafayette, Louisiana, Sept. 24 after spending weeks collecting goods and donations for those hardest hit by the devastating floods in their neighboring state.

After torrential downpours flooded a large portion of Louisiana in August, 13 people died and several thousand were misplaced when their homes flooded, prompting the Sailors to take action to help.

"Once we found out what was going on in Louisiana, we just came together and coordinated with the First Class Association and other associations like the [Junior Enlisted Association] to collect some funds and contact some local stores here to see if we could get some support," said Hospital Corpsman 1st Class April Hambrick, a Basic Medical Technician Corpsman Program (BMTCP) instructor who helped coordinate the drive.

What Hambrick and her shipmates also found out was 20 of the parishes in the southern half of Louisiana were designated as federal disaster areas by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the flood was declared by the Red Cross to be the worst natural disaster to hit the United States in four years.
Hambrick contacted many stores in the community and said a couple different business donated a few pallets of bottled water.

Overall, the donation drive collected 3,840 bottles of water and more than 150 pounds of non-perishable food items, clothing and cleaning supplies.

"It was a need of the people -- a community -- and our job is to always give back, especially when you have a chance to," said Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Emanuel Floyd, another BMTCP instructor who coordinated the drive and helped drive the donations over to Louisiana. "It makes you feel good that you accomplished something that day. You never know when you might be in that other position of someone who might be in need, and I would want somebody to do the same thing for me."

According to Hambrick, the donation drive hit close to home for some.

"Some of our students are from there, and when I mentioned to them what we were doing, they were just in awe that we were coming together," she said. "So they were willing to come together and donate as well. It's knowing we're all helping each other out because we're all a family here, and it also affected some of the people that you know as well."

Floyd agreed the opportunity to help out a community was rewarding and well worth the effort.

"It was fulfilling," he said. "It makes you feel good. I know we do a big thing here, leadership-wise as instructors, but it was really good to say, 'Hey. I did something today. I really impacted the world.'"

NMTSC Sailors make concerted efforts to support the local communities in any way they can, as many believe it is their duty as service members.

"People look up to us," said Hambrick. "We're out fighting in this uniform, and there are a lot of things that go on around the world. So instead of us just going outside of the country to support other countries, we can also be here to support ours."

The Sailors delivered the donations to the United Way in Lafayette to be distributed to families in the community.

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