More than half the Texas Lutheran College student body volunteered to help in the clean up of flood victims along the Guadalupe River and Geronimo Creek, swollen by a week of heavy rains which sent hundreds of persons from their homes.
    "We've had over 90 percent of the student body volunteer to help," said Dr. C. H. Oestreich, academic dean of the college.  "They began volunteering when some of the subdivisions were still under water."
    One fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity, was among the first to offer aid.
    The main switchboard began receiving calls for help to come by office.  Campus Minister John Schwart, Vance Valerio and D. R. Wilcox, foreign language profession, began coordinating work crews.
    As calls came in for help, Wilcox, Valerio and Schwartz assigned students to the stricken areas.
    "I don't know what we would have done without those students," remarked Sonny Perry, A Glen Cove homeowner.  "They pitched right in and helped."
    Police Chief Leroy Schneider added that "Those students deserve a big hand.  A lot of them don't even live around here, and they are working extremely hard."  
    Perry and his wife and two children were among hundreds of homeowners to lose their home and most of their personal effects.
    "Everything we've worked for and acquired over 13 years--it's gone," said Mrs. Perry, a teacher in the Seguin Independent School District.
    Walter Ulbricht, Seguin banker, said the help offered by the Texas Lutheran students made it possible for a lot of people to get a lot of nasty, clean up work done that might have taken weeks to complete."
    "I just can't say enough about them," Ulbricht added. "They are deserving of a tremendous reward."  
    Part of their reward has already become official.  Any student working to aid the flood victims will not be required to take final examinations.
    "They won't have to take the finals unless they want to," added Dr. Oestreich.  "It's optional.  They can take them if they feel the need to try and raise a grade.  But what more should we ask of them?  They turned out by the hundreds to volunteer to help."
    The flood waters, which struck Lake Placid, Parkview, Elmwood Village and Treasure Island, apparently unleashed its strongest punch at the Glen Cove subdivision.
    "We were wanted of the rising waters," said Dr. Keith Skogman,  "sometime after midnight Friday.  We didn't have too much time to get out with anything, except some clothes and a few mattresses."
    Skogman is athletic director at TLC.  Friday, May 12, was ironically the birthday of his wife Carol.
    Across the street lived the Robert Florstedts, a professor at Texas Lutheran.  Mrs. Florstedt treasured an art collection that had taken years to acquire.  Dr. Florstedt had a prized coin collection.  Now, though all of it is gone, Along with furniture, clothing and other valuables.
    "These were just priceless, personal possessions," said Dr. Florstedt, shaking his head.  "Now, suddenly, they're gone."
    While many of the college students chipped in the help the victims, some of their own classmates felt the impact of the devastating floods.  At least 12 students lost clothing and personal effects when their mobile homes were swept away.
    One of them was Bruce Olson, a senior from Algona, Iowa, and candidate for a degree this week. He was one of several living in mobile homes along the river.
    "About all I have left," said Olson, "is that clothes I have on."  
    The story goes on and on.  In the Parkview subdivision, Mrs. Calvin Frisch, 12 Champions Dr., was home with the couple's four youngsters when the call went out to evacuate.  The Rev. Frisch, associate director of development at TLC, was out of town on business.
    "We're fortunate," the Rev. Frisch said afterwards,  "We had water damage in our home.  But it wasn't as high as many of the others."  
    Gene Fogt, dean of men at the college, was among those who suffered from high water in his home on Guadalupe Drive.
    "We had three to four feet of water in our home," echoed George Kieffer, former coach, athletic director and now director of placement and services at TLC.  "But we weren't hit as hard as the people in Glen Cobe or some other places."
    Meanwhile, the digging out, the sifting and searching continues, sometimes in stunned disbelief, sometimes in hidden sorrow.
    One lady, standing amid the mud and debris in her home, was heard to comment, "This makes life rather simple now.  We don't have much to lean on, very few decisions to make.  We'll start over from scratch."
Seguin Enterprise, Thursday, May 18, 1972