College Sports Information Directors of America

Dear CoSIDA:

I would like to offer my most sincere thanks for the generous contribution which the vote voted to me following Hurricane Katrina.

It has been an interesting time for me, and anybody who lived in New Orleans at the time of the storm. I use the word interesting because it really has been that way. I have experienced a lot of different things since late August when the storm hit; I believe I have gained an amazing amount of knowledge as far as doing my job and dealing with the media. However, the most valuable lesson learned has been how good people really are. We hear so much about the good being gone from todays society, but I can assure you that is not true.

As a department, we have had SMU offer us meals on their campus and tickets to a game, the Dallas Cowboys invite us to a game, Deion Sanders and Karl Malone speak to our team, Texas A&M, Louisiana Tech, Texas Tech and SMU invite our athletes to live and train on their campuses, Conference USA provide us with office space, a host of schools and cities provide their football stadiums; the list goes on and on.

However, personally, I have received assistance at every turn. I have visited many schools in the past few months and even taken up residence at a couple of them. The warm welcome provided by Malcolm Butler and his staff at Louisiana Tech and Alan Cannon and his staff at Texas A&M has been amazing. In Ruston, I had the former president of the university provide an apartment to me free of charge. Judy Willson was quick to work with myself and CoSIDA and provide a generous gift card for Target, which came in very handy (who cant use a gift card to Target? Hurricane or not).

I realized that I may receive further assistance from CoSIDA, but I was still very surprised to receive your check. While I have been working non-stop the last few months, I have not had time to really consider how to pull things back together upon returning to New Orleans. When the thought entered my head of finding another (more expensive) place to live, or some sort of transportation or even to replace furniture and clothing, I tended to go back to worrying about the next interview or how we could print our media guides. I really had no idea what I would do.

The assistance of CoSIDA has lifted a big weight off of my shoulders and once again, it has proven that there is a lot of good still out there in people.

Thank you once again.

Sincerely,

John B. Sudsbury
Associate Director of Media Relations
Tulane University

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