Senior Bridget Battaglia’s hometown of Rockaway Beach, Queens was a lot different from when she last saw it. Collapsed houses, abandoned cars, and eroded beach replaced the familiar landscape of her lively ocean neighborhood.

While some communities swing back into normalcy within the weeks after Hurricane Sandy, many others still struggle in the storm’s aftermath as they confront their losses and begin the rebuilding process.

“My reaction to seeing my town was heartbreaking,” said Battaglia. “It was a big mess and the devastation seemed like a dream. Living at Iona, everyone and everything is just normal. I assumed that when I got home it would be too, but my family is without power and constantly dealing with construction.”

Upon hearing stories similar to Battaglia’s of students losing books, other personal belongings and even homes due to Sandy, Iona College established the “Hurricane Sandy Fund for Students.” The fund will provide student victims with the financial assistance needed to recover from the immense personal losses suffered during the storm.

“I was touched in hearing about the Sandy relief fund, but to be honest I didn’t know where to look into that and was sure it must not apply to me,” Battaglia said. “Either I’m in denial of my parents’ sudden financial struggles, or I just think someone else definitely needs that help more than we do. We lost so little in comparison to so many.”

Fundraising efforts are being led by the Iona College division of Advancement and External Affairs under Senior Vice President of Development Paul Sutera.

“This is an opportunity for Iona to help Iona as well as the community,” said Sutera. “This should be our response as a mission-focused institution.”

Donations are currently being made through Iona’s online giving site. There is no set fundraising goal for the project nor have the to-date fundraising totals been released.

However, Sutera confirms that gifts have started to accumulate as faculty, staff and students have made donations online. The college plans to supplement the online donations with phone calls and mailings in the near future.

“We expect more donations to come in as the story [of the storm] is told and relief efforts continue,” said Sutera.

The Office of Student Retention will determine who is eligible for assistance through the fund. Brother Devlin and his staff plan to work with students affected by the storm to discuss their needs and help with the application process for the funds. No specific plans have yet been released in regard to the implementation of the monies raised.

A campus-wide collection was also established to gather important items needed by the victims of the storm such as clean up materials, medicine, toiletries and baby supplies.

The items were shipped to areas such as Battaglia’s own community in the Rockaways, where on Nov. 10 and Nov. 11 the Iona community engaged in hands-on service work to aid desperate Sandy victims since the devastation caused by the storm as well as the relief efforts hit close to home for many Iona students.

The two Rockaway day trips were the brainchild of senior Campus Minister Jennifer Pietrofere and junior Ryan Bacci who made this effort possible with the help of Campus Ministries.

Junior Alexa Serrechia, senior Jessica Scaparro and Director of the Center for Campus Ministries Carl Procario-Foley played especially important roles in the organization of the project. According to Procario-Foley, between 60 and 70 Ionians engaged in the hands-on relief work over a period of two days.

“I’m honestly so proud of the Iona community,” Pietrofere said. “There was an amazing turnout for volunteers with the Sandy relief efforts. We had an overflow of students with a waiting list just to take a trip and continue to clean and support Rockaway.”

Battaglia, who accompanied Campus Ministries to the Rockaways to participate in the relief efforts in her own neighborhood said, “I was involved in pulling down the walls to my own room. It was so heartbreaking to watch my family have to pull down the walls and rip out the flooring of mine and my sisters’ bedrooms, which had just been part of a house remodel only seven years earlier. The walls literally just crumbled to a person’s touch.”

Due to the urgent need for assistance in the most severely impacted areas, Iona will continue collecting items and donations in addition to possibly carrying out more relief work in New Jersey and Staten Island.

“We see this effort as a long term outreach,” he said, explaining that Iona in Mission is currently exploring a mission trip in January or the spring semester to an undetermined site for post-Sandy relief and rebuilding work.