Senior Eduardo Ramirez lived only 15 minutes away from where the tornado hit. His home was not damaged; however, the aftermath of such a disaster still concerned him.

“I was worried; I had family out in the area, and I wasn’t able to contact most of them,” Ramirez said. “That night after I got out of work, a few friends and I were talking about donating in a group chat.”

Some people feel a responsibility to provide aid in times of natural disasters more so than just posting a sentence of sympathy on social media.

“There’s always exceptions to why people can’t help, like scheduling or they themselves had to deal with personal things in their own lives,” Ramirez said. “But those who were able to and didn’t even try were just too lazy, or they just said they would to make themselves look better to others.”

Many people lost their homes and others got away with a couple of scraps that only served as reminders of what they once had. As a result, churches and groups began asking for donations for the affected.

“For me, it was based on morals,” Ramirez said. “If I we’re in those people’s shoes, I would want to be helped. We’re only humans. We can’t do everything without help here and there.”

To help, Ramirez gathered bags of clothing he could spare to donate to the affected, but unfortunately it was not a bandwagon situation.

“I told a few friends about the place where they could donate, and my friend Nick tweeted out the location for it, but I guess it didn’t work,” Ramirez said. “We were there for a while and didn’t see any familiar faces. It wasn’t hard to spread the word, it just depended on whether or not people actually wanted to help.

Natural disasters result in humans showing their vulnerability, both physically and philosophically.

“It’s sadder when people nonchalantly coexist with the disaster,” Ramirez said. “Any act of kindness helps. It all doesn’t have to be about material goods; just being supporting and caring will go a long way.”

Volunteering can help both parties.

“The little things we do can help our generation as a whole be better, caring about others and not just yourself,” Ramirez said. “You just gotta want to help the bigger picture. I helped the bigger picture, and to me, that felt good.”