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Volume 51, Issue 6 | monday, august 29, 2016 | ndsmcobserver.com
Student helps with Louisiana flood relief effort Notre Dame sophomore raises funds for victims of flooding after torrential downpour in Louisiana By MEGAN VALLEY News Writer
A torrential rainfall starting Aug. 11 caused 20 Louisiana parishes to be designated federal disaster areas by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Eleven people have been confirmed dead, according to news media outlets, and thousands more have lost their homes. Sophomore Gaven DeVillier and his family are doing their best to provide relief. “Mom was really restless on Saturday, as we all were, and she decided that we needed to do
something to help out,” DeVillier said. “She posted on Facebook and got in contact with some friends and said ‘Hey look, we’re gonna have a donation drop-off at our house, and then we’ll take the supplies to wherever they need to go.’ She sent that out Saturday night and early Sunday morning, just to let people know. “It got to the point around noon [Sunday], our carport was full with supplies. My mom contacted some of the people at the local high school, Brusley High, and they were gracious enough to help, so a few of them went out. We thought there was going
to be four people there; it turned out it was over 50. Fifty people volunteering to take the stuff we had and shipping it to where it needed to go.” DeVillier, who is from Brusley in West Baton Rouge, said his family’s home was not damaged. “If you look a map of the parishes that were considered disaster zones, there’s a circle around West Baton Rouge,” he said. “We were lucky to not be affected directly, but my best friends’ houses, my high school teachers’ houses, they all flooded, or a lot of their houses flooded. We had 12 teachers from my high school,
Catholic High, who had at least some damage to their homes. Much of the organization and communication between the shelters within the East and West Baton Rouge parishes was done by DeVillier’s mother, he said. The DeVillier family and other volunteers took supplies to shelters across the region, including Port Allen Parish Center, the River Center and Celtic Studios. Additionally, the DeVillier’s family assisted in organizing relief efforts for members of the Catholic High community, where his father teaches senior physics and his brothers are
seniors. “[Tuesday], we spent the morning trying to coordinate which students from Catholic High needed help, whose houses were flooded,” he said. “The school wanted to get together and see what it could do for its own community. It was a volunteer invitation to the teachers; we probably had like 30 students come too that just showed up. The turnout was incredible that first day and continuing on through the week.” DeVillier spent several of his see FLOOD PAGE 3
ND students experience Rio Olympic Games By EMILY McCONVILLE Associate News Editor
CAITLYN JORDAN | The Observer
Notre Dame senior Lindsay Allen orders dinner at the new Jimmy John’s location on Eddy Street on Sunday. The restaurant joins other chains such as Chipotle, Blaze Pizza and Five Guys.
Jimmy John’s franchise opens on Eddy Street By COURTNEY BECKER News Writer
While new additions such as Dunne Hall, Flaherty Hall and Smashburger were being unveiled on Notre Dame’s campus over the summer, a new Jimmy John’s location also opened on Eddy Street between the Hammes Bookstore and Blaze Pizza.
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Tyler Grummel, first assistant at Jimmy John’s, said the restaurant’s new location was chosen largely due to its increased proximity to Notre Dame’s campus — with the restaurant’s location on Michigan Avenue formerly being closest to campus — and takes Domer Dollars to account for added student business.
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“We’re closer to campus and we wanted to increase business that way,” Grummel said. “This store, especially, is mainly Notre Dame-based clientele [and] we take Domer Dollars over the phone and at the registers. We’re getting a lot more business because of that, too. We got it every see EDDY STREET PAGE 3
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The U.S. women’s gymnastics team emerged onto the floor of the Rio Olympic Arena and sat down, awaiting the routines of the women’s allaround team competition. Wild applause greeted them, the packed arena and millions around the world cheering the star-studded quintet on. In the row of seats behind them was senior Payton Erlemeier. “I was low-key trying to keep my cool, but I was so excited to see them,” she said. Erlemeier was an NBC Olympics intern, a job she had gotten after working for the network at Notre Dame football games. She arrived in Rio several days before the Games began and watched the city make last-minute preparations. “It was really cool to see everything come together,” she said. “Some days you could wander anywhere, and then as it got closer to the Games, security got tighter.” Erlemeier worked primarily
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at the gymnastics arena. Not far away, fellow senior Noemi Ventilla was volunteering for the press team of the badminton arena. Ventilla had wanted to work at the Olympic Games since she was 10 years old, when her hometown, New York City, was bidding to host them. “New York never got the Olympics, but since then it’s been on my radar as something I could do and something I really wanted to do,” she said. By the time the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro rolled around, Ventilla’s interest in the Games had expanded to a senior thesis on their impact on host cities. She traveled to Rio with a Glynn Family Honors Program research grant, as well as the volunteer position. She spent 11 days working at the badminton arena, visiting newly-renovated buildings and neighborhoods, watching events and talking to people from all over the world in town for the Games. Ventilla’s specific job, the see RIO PAGE 4
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