Nursing students raise money for tornado victims

Becca Watts knew she wanted to do something, but she didn’t quite know what.

Horrified by the damage and pain caused by the tornadoes that ripped across the region on Easter Sunday, she began thinking about how to help the next day. On Facebook students with the same thought were asking similar questions.

“I saw people asking, ‘Is there anything going on? Is there anything I can donate to? Anyone who needs anything?’,” she recalled.

Talking with the 40-or-so other students in her fifth-level nursing class at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, they came up with the idea of a designing and selling a locally-focused T-shirt.

So they did. With a logo of the Chattanooga skyline designed by Watts, as of Tuesday, April 28, more than 700 shirts had been sold, raising more than $8,500.

“Ultimately, I am just extremely proud of our community,” Watts said. “When all of this started, my classmates and I thought—best case scenario—we could sell 150 shirts. I pray that this donation gives hope to those students who have lost so much.”

Money raised will be donated to the UTC Student Disaster Relief Fund 2020, which was organized by the School of Nursing specifically for students who were victims of the tornadoes. It will be administered through the UTC Student Emergency Fund.

“The fundraising effort by the students in the School of Nursing exemplifies the type of engagement and leadership that we hope all of our students aspire, both in an out of the classroom,” said Brett Fuchs, UTC associate dean of students and administrator of the fund.

“These students started this initiative without prompting, simply wanting to find a way to help their fellow Mocs. Over and over again over the last weeks, we have watched as our students, faculty, and staff selflessly work to aid one another—whether it be the impact of COVID-19 or the Chattanooga tornadoes.”

Tim Lott, another nursing student involved in the T-shirt sale, said he has close friends whose homes were destroyed in the storms. As nursing students, he and his classmates some in direct contact with the damage—both physical and mental—that disasters like this one can cause.

“Many of us are employed in the hospitals already and know the implication that injuries from a disaster like a tornado can have on people,” he said.

Once the sale is over, T-shirts will be shipped directly to the buyers’ homes, Watts said.

“Chattanooga and the UTC community have given us so much over our four-plus years as students, and we would like nothing more than to give back,” Watts said.