"What an amazing sense of community!"

Tim Paschkewitz, a UI graduate student in chemistry, was among the thousands of volunteers who turned out to protect the campus:

"On one sandbagging occasion Saturday (June 14) morning, I had the pleasure of meeting people from many areas around eastern Iowa—Solon, Iowa City, Coralville, Williamsburg, North Liberty, and Riverside. I was just taken aback at how when the cities or University needed help, people came...In a dire situation, the volunteers were cheerfully giving their best. I met up with many students and staff members between the Library and Adler and it didn’t matter where they work, what program they were in…everyone was determined to prevent complete devastation of University buildings along the river.

It could have been easy for the volunteers to be cynical and sarcastic regarding our efforts, but I never heard such a remark even once. Even after we were told to leave on Saturday due to approaching thunderstorms, you could see it in people’s faces…they wanted to keep going. I have never been so proud to be a transplanted Iowan in all my life as I was this past week watching and working with people from all over Eastern Iowa scramble wither utter determination to save Iowa City, Coralville, and the University. What an amazing sense of community!"