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\u201cI don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve ever heard of a fishing rodeo, but those are the kind of rodeos we have down south,\u201d smiles Louisiana native Briana Kent. \u201cYou know, going out and catching the biggest fish you can.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cI don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve ever heard of a fishing rodeo, but those are the kind of rodeos we have down south,\u201d smiles Louisiana native Briana Kent. \u201cYou know, going out and catching the biggest fish you can.\u201d<\/p>\n
The second-year Occupational Therapy Doctorate (OTD) student is laughing at the memory of the watery rodeos that mostly took place near her grandparents\u2019 house on Grand Isle, Louisiana \u2013 and noting how different they are from the round-ups that surround her these days at UND\u2019s satellite OT program in Casper, Wyo.<\/p>\n
Although her \u201chome\u201d is technically Prairieville, La., Kent says that she spent the summers and most holidays of her youth on Grand Isle, a skinny, seven-mile long island in the Gulf of Mexico that serves as the state\u2019s almost southernmost tip.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can barely see Grand Isle on a map,\u201d she says. \u201cBut it\u2019s kind of this little paradise that not many people know about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Disaster Relief<\/strong><\/p>\n Today, though, Kent is almost afraid of what she\u2019d see were she to make it back to her \u201clittle paradise.\u201d<\/p>\n Less than a month ago, Grand Isle, along with much of Louisiana, was hit hard by Hurricane Ida, the 40th<\/sup> serious hurricane or tropical storm to hit the state since the year 2000. As of this writing, the Associated Press estimates damage from Ida to be at least $50 billion.<\/p>\n \u201cIda hit Grand Isle bad, and the communities around there,\u201d Kent says of the storm that boasted a larger diameter than even Hurricane Katrina. \u201cThey were right in the eye of the hurricane. Even though my family was okay, there was a lot of structural damage to the community. I was in touch with my family the whole night. They were calling me, giving me updates. Trees were falling everywhere. That Sunday morning, my dad sent me a link for a video camera on our street in Grand Isle. There was a pole with a camera on it. I watched the feed, but all I saw was water, so it was flooded by then.\u201d<\/p>\n In the end, Kent says, flood waters reached as high as 12 feet on Grand Isle: \u201cBecause of the storm surge, the island was almost buried by sand \u2013 there was nearly three feet of sand across the whole island. That was devastating.\u201d<\/p>\n Both seeing and feeling the devastation, even at a distance, the UND OT student jumped into action, getting to work almost literally the day after the storm by organizing an online fundraiser for her community. Thus was \u201cBriana\u2019s Wyoming Fundraiser for Grand Isle\u201d born on social media.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first thing (OT instructor) Nicole Harris said to me was \u2018If you need anything or want to do anything for your home and family, let me know\u2019,\u201d Kent continues, adding that all program faculty in Casper and Grand Forks have been very supportive. \u201cI was going to send out resources to people so they could donate things like gas or food to me or other organizations, but I came to the realization that money would be the most valuable thing because I couldn\u2019t ship gas or ice to Louisiana. So, that\u2019s where the idea of a [social media] fundraiser came from.\u201d<\/p>\n Setting the bar at a modest $5,000, Kent, a first-time fundraiser, says that as of this writing she has pulled in nearly $1,400 \u2014 \u201ca drop in the bucket.\u201d But she\u2019s still at it, advocating for hurricane relief as her school schedule allows.<\/p>\n \u201cMy classmates are graduate students, and it\u2019s hard to donate your student loans,\u201d she jokes. \u201cSo my main goal was to just share the fundraiser far and wide so it can get out to people. Everyone has been very supportive in sharing the link<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n From Louisiana to Wyoming<\/strong><\/p>\n So how does a kid from Louisiana end up in the least<\/em> populous state in the Union anyway?<\/p>\n \u201cMy aunt lives in Buffalo, Wyo.,\u201d explains Kent, who earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in kinesiology from Louisiana State University. \u201cShe moved from Los Angeles to that tiny town a while back and just loved it. I went to visit her once and fell in love with it, sort of the way she did. So, I wanted to try to find a way to get back to Wyoming and ended up finding the OT graduate program here and applying through UND.\u201d<\/p>\n Noting that she had \u201cread a lot of good things about UND,\u201d Kent jumped at the chance to get a doctoral degree from the only OT program in the state of Wyoming.<\/p>\n And one year in, so-far-so-good.<\/p>\n \u201cI really like the environment,\u201d she muses, admitting that she\u2019s still considering her specialization options. \u201cI thought I knew what I wanted to specialize in, but since I got here my preference has moved around a bit. They do a good job of educating you on the different settings for practice, and for me, coming from a populated area to a more rural setting, my focus has changed a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n Next steps<\/strong><\/p>\n Assuming she can meet her general fundraising goal, Kent says that all the money she raises for hurricane relief will be given directly to the City of Grand Isle through its leadership team.<\/p>\n \u201cMy dad contacted the City Council, and they recommended a personal fundraiser, and I just happened to be on Facebook,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen the event is finished we\u2019ll send the money to the residents of Grand Isle through the council, who will distribute it in the way it needs to be. Anything helps. Even if we can help one or two families or get some folks some supplies, that\u2019s useful.\u201d<\/p>\n After all, says, Kent, there aren\u2019t many places on the planet that qualify as \u201cparadise.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGrand Isle has a lot of palm trees and a beach right on the Gulf,\u201d she notes of the island accessible by a single road: Highway 1. \u201cI know you can go to Florida and get a beach, but Grand Isle is more peaceful\u2014not so full of people. And I have a lot of memories there\u2014fishing with my dad, holidays. I have a lot of memories there.\u201d<\/p>\n So until Kent can make it back to her own version of paradise to help in-person, perhaps over the Thanksgiving holiday, she continues both to fundraise for Louisiana and study occupational therapy theory and practice in Wyoming.<\/p>\n Maybe she\u2019ll even take in a rodeo.<\/p>\n To contribute to Briana\u2019s fundraiser for Louisiana hurricane relief, see her <\/em><\/strong>fundraising site online<\/em><\/strong><\/a> or contact her at <\/em><\/strong>briana.kent@UND.edu<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cI don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve ever heard of a fishing rodeo, but those are the kind of rodeos we have down south,\u201d smiles Louisiana native Briana Kent. \u201cYou know, going out and catching the biggest fish you can.\u201d The second-year Occupational Therapy Doctorate (OTD) student is laughing at the memory of the watery rodeos that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":7825,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1435,1437,1431,1432,1434,1436,80,341,1439,1433,1438],"class_list":["post-7824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-briana","tag-casper","tag-hurricane","tag-ida","tag-kent","tag-louisiana","tag-occupational","tag-ot","tag-otd","tag-relief","tag-wyoming"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n