Mildred Bumganer enjoys spending time with friends, and when the 94-year-old was recently in Laredo, she wasted no time making new ones.
However, Bumganer’s brief visit to Laredo in September was not your typical weekend getaway.
No one would guess from Bumganer’s positive outlook on life that she was among the thousands of evacuees who fled their homes along the Texas Gulf Coast region to escape the fury of Hurricane Rita.
Fortunately for Bumganer and her friends—all residents of the Bayshore Nursing and Rehab Center in Aransas Pass—they found open, caring arms waiting to embrace them at Laredo Community College.
Soon after settling into their temporary home, Bumganer and her friends were feasting on breakfast tacos.
“The taco tastes great,” Bumganer said.
Bumganer, who has now lived for a year at the nursing home, did not seem to be too worried about the storm.
“I’ve lived through several tornados,” Bumganer said. “I’m just grateful that my friends and I were able to be moved out of the storm’s way.”
About her unplanned visit to Laredo, Bumganer was hoping to make new friends.
Jim Macdonald, regional director for the company which operates the center for long-term healthcare, accompanied the first group of nursing home residents to Laredo on the early morning of Sept. 22.
Discovering Laredo, however, was an adventure of its own.
After receiving notice the previous day of a voluntary evacuation in the region due to the probable arrival of Rita, officials at the nursing home took no chance compromising the safety and well being of the residents. They began the process to evacuate the residents from the nursing home.
But Macdonald and his staff soon found themselves in another predicament: locating a shelter that would be willing and able to accommodate the residents.
The nursing home’s first option was to travel to Falls City about 2.5 hours away from Aransas Pass. But that option fell through before they could leave because officials in that small community decided to reserve their shelter space for area citizens.
The nursing home residents’ next option was to travel to Fort Worth. However, nursing home staff worried that the six hour-plus trek would be too strenuous for their residents.
Prayers were answered when nursing home officials received word that the LCC campus in Laredo, approximately 3.5 hours away, would welcome the nursing home residents.
After arriving in Laredo and to the LCC campus, Macdonald was the among the first to assess the facilities of the college gym
When Macdonald, who had not slept in two days, walked inside the LCC gym, he let out a sigh of relief.
Macdonald, his staff and the nursing home residents were welcomed by a group of health sciences students, faculty and other college staff eager and ready to make their stay a comfortable one.
Within a few hours, the college gym was transformed into a temporary healthcare facility that included hospital beds from the college’s nursing and allied health training laboratories and much more.
“I was expecting to find an empty space. I was definitely not expecting to find this,” said a grateful Macdonald.
Carolyn Otero, program coordinator of the LCC Associate Degree Nursing program and one of the many faculty members who coordinated the city’s designated “medical site” for shelter evacuees with medical needs, lauded the efforts of students, faculty and staff.
“The college students and staff are commended for responding immediately to the needs of the evacuees on campus. Their call to service is truly outstanding. I am honored to be associated with this fine group of caring individuals,” Otero said.
Ana Lisa Medeles, who is studying at LCC to become an emergency medical technician, was at the medical site tending to the needs of evacuees and taking their vital signs.
“The opportunity to welcome the evacuees to LCC has been a very rewarding experience to me and my classmates,” Medeles said. “This hands-on learning experience is enough to convince me why I chose to pursue an allied health career. We (students) are learning something more beyond what we could ever experience in the classrooms and labs.”
Two more busloads of nursing home residents and their family members arrived later on the afternoon of Sept. 22. Nursing and allied health students assisted the staff in transporting the evacuees by wheelchairs or mobile beds.
A few hours after the Aransas Pass evacuees arrived, word of their arrival was spread by the local radio stations.
Shortly thereafter, the college began receiving support from numerous businesses. A local hotel, La Posada, donated shampoos and soaps and the Laredo Sam’s Club donated an array of personal items, magazines and other items for entertainment.
Nursing and allied health students and staff from LCC were not the only ones who provided a helping hand.
Among the evacuees were family members of the nursing home residents and children of some of the staff. They were housed in the college’s student center.
Students and faculty from the college’s Child Development program assisted by offering coloring activities, story-telling and games to the children.
Luckily, most of the south eastern section of the Texas Gulf Coast was spared of Rita’s wrath.
On Sept. 23, the voluntary evacuation for Aransas Pass and surrounding communities was lifted, and nursing home officials began the process to transport the residents back to Aransas Pass.
But before they left their home away from home, nursing home residents were treated to inspirational music by the LCC choir.
And the kinesiology instructors provided a special aerobics workout for the elderly and infirm. Of course, Bumganer was eager to join the fun and participate alongside one of her new friends: a health sciences student from LCC.
All the evacuees left with a special memento of LCC. The college bookstore donated T-shirts and other college apparel to the nursing home residents.
LCC President Dr. Ramon H. Dovalina, who approved LCC’s participation as a medical site for the evacuees, congratulated the LCC family for the extraordinary hospitality they demonstrated during the refugees’ stay at LCC.
“This truly was an outstanding example of goodwill, and I express my gratitude to all who got involved to make Laredo Community College shine,” Dovalina said.
Mildred Bumganer…after arriving to the Laredo Community College campus on Sept. 22 with her friends from the Bayshore Nursing and Rehab Center in Aransas Pass
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