MARSHALL, Texas --- The East Texas Baptist University Lady Tigers softball team answered the campus wide call to participate in the Southern Baptist Convention Buckets of Hope nationwide campaign for Haiti Relief.

The Great Commission Center of ETBU asked students, faculty, and staff to pack a five-gallon plastic bucket with foodstuffs.The Lady Tigers collected over $800 to provide 22 Buckets of Hope to meet the need in Haiti. The Tiger football team also participated donating five buckets. The ETBU family collectively put together a total of 155 buckets. The food items in each bucket can feed a family in the earthquake stricken country for a week.

The items packed inside each bucket are two five-pound bags of long grain enriched rice, one 48-ounce plastic bottle of cooking oil, two two-pound bags of dry black or red beans, one five-pound bag of all-purpose flour (non self-rising), one 20-ounce cylinder container of granulated white sugar, two one-pound boxes of spaghetti noodles, one 40-ounce plastic jar of smooth peanut butter, and one two-gallon plastic zip lock storage bag to wrap the bottle of cooking oil The food supplies will feed a family for a week. The empty container will be used by the Haitian families for many other uses.

The Buckets of Hope were put together voluntarily by faculty, administrative offices, athletic teams, student organizations, and individuals. Even members of the community who heard about what ETBU was doing gave money as well as buckets with food packed inside.

An 18-wheeler sent by the Southern Baptist Convention North American Mission Board will arrive on campus later to get the collected buckets. ETBU is also a regional collection center for the relief effort. The Buckets of Hope will go to a staging area in Florida for placement in cargo containers for immediate shipment to the island nation.

-Courtesy Mike Midkiff, East Texas Baptist University