Students keep their spirits up, help others in need

DANIEL McCABE | Flo Tracy has been making some local restaurants very happy lately. Last week, she ordered pizza for 50. On Saturday night, she ordered 75 meals from a Vietnamese restaurant. On Sunday, an Italian eatery received a call for 125 dinners. Tracy, McGill's director of residences and student housing, was rewarding the female students who make McGill's Royal Victoria College their home away from home for their patience. Thanks to the blackout that hit most of the downtown area on Friday, January 9, RVC went six days without power. Students had to manage without heat, laundry facilities or elevators -- that last point no minor inconvenience in a 12-storey building. "The students were extremely patient. They were just troupers, especially the the dons and floor fellows," says Tracy. All six of McGill's residences lost their electricity when the downtown area was blacked out. While the four residences situated near Mount Royal regained their electricity the following day, RVC on University Street and Solin Hall near the Lionel Groulx metro station weren't so lucky. Generators supplied both buildings with emergency lighting for hallways and other areas, but the buildings were without power otherwise. In total, about 600 students live in RVC and Solin Hall. "As time went on, a lot of students went home," says Tracy. "Some moved in with friends who had electricity. About 60 stayed at RVC all through it." Tracy credits her staff with doing an exceptional job. "Even though the University was officially closed, about 80% reported for work each day." Bathrooms were kept clean and meals -- albeit cold ones -- were served. "The nights were long," recalls Tracy, who lives at RVC herself. "Everything got dark after four in the afternoon. The girls grouped together in the rooms to stay warm. After six days, it was getting tiresome." Solin Hall went without power for three-and-a-half days. "Many of the students left and went back home to Toronto or the U.S.," says English professor Myrna Selkirk, the director for Solin Hall. "Some parents really wanted their children out of Montreal. About 100 stuck it out." According to Selkirk, roughing it became a competive sport for some students. "One student would talk about taking two cold showers and the next would say, 'That's nothing, I shaved my legs with cold water!'" Students wheeled the residence's huge barbecue outside to cook some meals, while some of Solin Hall's less adventurous souls travelled to the still-powered Athletics Complex downtown for hot showers. Selkirk says that the coldest apartments in the residence -- such as the one she and her husband share -- were located on the corners of the building. Other apartments -- where the students stayed -- were comparatively warm. "With people huddled together and with a few candles, it was actually kind of comfortable there. We used my apartment as a fridge to store food -- it was that cold. I left a sandwich on the window sill and it froze." Ghost stories and take-out pizza helped keep up the spirits of Solin Hall's residents, according to Selkirk. The Post-Graduate Students' Society did its bit to provide a warm environment for students without heat. On the Friday of the downtown blackout, the PGSS opened up its building, Thomson House on McTavish Street, as a shelter until the following Tuesday evening. "We had about 35 people stay each night, with larger numbers dropping in during the day," says PGSS president Matt Bergbusch. "About four-fifths of the people who stayed here were undergraduates. The rest were graduate students or families that heard about our shelter on the radio or through word of mouth." The PGSS shelter inherited many of the people who had previously stayed at a shelter set up by the Students' Society in the University Centre. That shelter lost its electricity when most of the downtown area went out. "Luckily our power stayed on," says Bergbusch. PGSS treated guests to breakfast and dinner, courtesy of Thomson House's chefs who worked overtime. Television sets and board games were provided for the building's temporary residents. "Our staff did a great job," says Bergbusch. "It was nice to see students from different areas talking and spending time together," says Bergbusch. "Some people struck up friendships who might never have met otherwise." Other McGill students are finding different ways to lend a hand to those in need. A group of law students collaborated with Concordia engineering students and AMJ Campbell Van Lines to organize a shipment of emergency supplies Monday night to Quebec areas still contending with power shortages. The idea originated with Trent Zimmerman, a social worker studying law at McGill. "It's hard to have peace of mind when you know hundreds of thousands of people are still without power," says Zimmerman, who hatched the idea after serving as a volunteer in emergency shelters. Together with fellow law students Amit Janco, Paula Clarke and Trent Mell and with the assistance of law professor William Foster, Zimmerman solicited donations from 50 corporate sponsors, as well as from organizations such as Montreal Harvest and the Salvation Army. "We were able to send out a 28-foot truck filled to the hilt with food and other supplies to some of the areas in the South Shore that were hit the hardest," says Zimmerman. Another shipment of supplies will be made next Monday and donations of non-perishable items are welcome. Donations can be left at AMJ Campbell Van Lines headquarters at 530 Lépine Avenue in Dorval. With the University again in full operation, the Student Health Services expects to see several patients in the coming weeks -- many students are expected to be suffering from colds exacerbated by the widespread loss of heating throughout the city last week. "It might seem a bit strange, but one of the things we're concerned with right now is a possible increase in pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases," says Dr. Pierre Tellier, medical director of Student Health Services. "When there is a break like this from school, students have some spare time on their hands and we often see a resulting increase in pregnancies. Unfortunately, many sexually active students don't take the protective measures that they ought to be taking. We offer pregnancy tests for free here and I would advise students to take advantage of that. They really shouldn't wait too long if they miss a period."