LINDSBORG, KS. - On August 30, more than 60 Bethany College students, staff and friends traveled to Greensburg, Kansas to help with tornado recovery efforts for the second straight year.

For one student, it was a trip home.

"It feels really good to be helping in my hometown. You drive around and see volunteers working everywhere, and it's cool to be one of those this time," said Greensburg High School graduate Sara McVay, whose family lost its house in the 2007 tornado.

"I stayed in town, and people were talking about it the next day at church," she said.

McVay is a freshman biology major at Bethany, where she is a member of the tennis team.

Bethany volunteers primed and painted new homes; helped prepare a house for demolition; used a jackhammer to remove old concrete; and poured new concrete.  Participating in the Saturday event were freshmen and returning students at Bethany; volunteers from St. John's Lutheran Church in Salina; and Bethany student-athletes, including members of the Bethany golf team, volleyball team and women's basketball team.

"It's a good thing we decided to do with our team," said Kevin Walters, a senior golfer from Gilbert, Ariz. He said the team made the choice "for team bonding, and to help out a good cause."

"We hope to show these young guys that it's a lot more beneficial to them to give than to receive," explained Jon Daniels, Bethany athletic director and head golf coach.

The all-volunteer trip was coordinated by Campus Pastor Noni Strand in conjunction with the college's orientation activities. "It's so important to be a servant leader," said Strand, and this trip is "how we can help our students to start that from the very first week they're on campus."

Students from last year's trip noted how much progress has been made in Greensburg. "Before you could see all the way across town," said sophomore Isaac Chambers. He remembered holes where the foundations of houses used to be. "Now there's houses going up everywhere," he said.

The service work also helped students grow personally. "It makes you feel so much more grateful for what you have in your life. You come here and you see all the destruction that could happen in one day, and then how they still picked up their lives and carried on…it makes you feel like the small things in your life can be overcome," said sophomore Jeni Schwandt from Liberty, Mo.

To view a video of Bethany's 2008 service trip to Greensburg, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJOnEpCAcjY.

To request a high-resolution copy of the video, contact Aubrey Streit.

Bethany College, established by Swedish Lutheran immigrants in 1881, is a college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The mission of Bethany College is to nurture and challenge individuals in their search for truth and meaning as they live lives of faith, learning and service. Bethany College is on the Web at www.bethanylb.edu.