FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Darlene Robertson
937.769.1820
drobertson@mcgregor.edu
Antioch University McGregor Offers New Hope
for
Hurricane Katrina Victim
Yellow Springs, Ohio – There has been a tiny miracle performed in Yellow Springs, according to Diana Dunn, a victim of Hurricane Katrina.
Diana Dunn and her late husband Dr. Jim Dunn, a former professor at Antioch College, lived in Yellow Springs for 14 years before moving to New Orleans 20 years ago. Jim Dunn, along with others in Yellow Springs, founded Help Us Make A Nation (HUMAN) out of which grew the New Orleans based People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond – a non-profit community organizing group dedicated to undoing racism.
While Diana Dunn was attending a HUMAN reunion meeting in Yellow Springs, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. “We thought we’d made it through after the storm hit, but then came the flooding. The force from the water came in from the industrial canal and pulverized the entire office. The People’s Institute office lost everything,” according to Dunn.
Despair and frustration were about to set in, and then Diana Dunn received an offer she couldn’t refuse. Barbara Gellman-Danley, President of Antioch University McGregor, offered her a vacant office in the Sontag-Fels building, McGregor's administrative offices located in Yellow Springs. Antioch University McGregor provided Dunn with a new office complete with all office amenities and Internet access.
Someone from the People’s Institute had to be settled enough to get the business operational and to deal with the insurance and other issues related to the loss of the New Orleans office. McGregor allowed Dunn take on that significant task.
“The people at Antioch University McGregor have been amazingly helpful, not only with donating this office and providing me with everything I need, but also with support and encouragement,” Dunn said. “Dr. Danley and many individuals in Yellow Springs have been angels that landed on my shoulder.”
It took Dunn two days to locate her grown children, who are safe. “Many people didn’t realize, although we had cell phones, the cellular towers were down and the only way we could reach each other was by text messaging,” Dunn said.
Her 130-year-old home is miraculously intact, only an added section on the back has water damage, and was only looted on the second floor. Dunn credits her gardener with saving her home. While she was in Yellow Springs during the storm, he put a tarp on the roof to keep water from coming in, emptied the refrigerators and saved her three dogs.
Dunn has opened her home to evacuees and people who are rebuilding their homes. As well as shelter, she has given her clothes, linens, blankets and anything else that remains in her New Orleans home to these evacuees that have nothing left. Dunn’s house has electric water heaters, so the five or more people staying there full-time are able to take hot showers – a luxury in post-Katrina New Orleans.
Dunn said she will remain in Yellow Springs for at least several more months. “I can work elsewhere. I don’t need to take up space in New Orleans when there are so many people there who must remain. I am grateful to be in a position where I can share my home,” she said.
“I’m thankful to be back in Yellow Springs for the time being, it’s the birthplace of the People’s Institute and close to my late husbands resting place in Urbana.” While Dunn found solace at Antioch University McGregor, the People’s Institute has found a new home in Fresno, Texas. The loss of their office and many aspects of normalcy are real and harsh, yet the spirits of Diana Dunn and the People’s Institute remain strong for the future.
Antioch University McGregor contributes to the betterment of the individual and the community by fostering academic excellence and providing socially responsive, flexible and innovative education programs for adult learners. McGregor features a wide array of bachelor’s degree completion programs, master’s programs in conflict resolution, management and education and also individualized liberal and professional studies programs.
