Mission Possible for Phi Beta Lambda

The Jefferson Davis Campus chapter of Phi Beta Lambda held a canned-food drive for the Gulf Coast Rescue Mission. Chapter offices and members delivered the food in November.


From left are Dominque Ehret, president; Mary Wells, vice president; Pam Piascik, treasurer; Aimee Wallace, secretary; and Sony Poupart, member.

The Gulf Coast Rescue Mission has been operating as a homeless shelter since 1965. Small, but mighty, they provide support and ministry to the homeless and troubled in Biloxi. On September 10, 2016, a fire ripped through one of their buildings destroying housing, offices and their kitchen.

Social workers who deal with the homeless issue say the rescue offers a service that is sorely needed in Harrison County. Sean Smith, Gulf Coast Rescue Mission assistant director, said “We had 16 guys in the building at the time of the fire, but thankfully no one was injured.”

Coinciding with the fire was the beginning of the fall semester for students at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. Phi Beta Lambda (PBL), a small, but mighty business administration student organization on the Jefferson Davis Campus, immediately jumped into action to help.

The Gulf Coast Rescue Mission has been a long-term community service organization for PBL, but this year they knew the need was so much more. With the fire, the rescue mission was is desperate need of food and clothing to help people who didn’t have much to begin with who had now lost everything.

So PBL officers and student members at the Jefferson Davis Campus went to work. The result was a student-led canned food drive to be delivered to the rescue mission to assist with their annual holiday meals. Cans started arriving in business classrooms by the hand-full, the bag-full and the box-full.

The food drive resulted in over 250 non-perishable food items being donated and $566 raised for the Gulf Coast Rescue Mission. Student members of the club felt mighty when they delivered the items to the rescue mission in November. Dominque Erhet, president of the campus PBL chapter,  said, “We are definitely doing this again!”

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