Eyes On The Prize I have been to SUNY Oneonta More times then I can remember, I am so sorry this has happened to you. When I was in College at SUNY Fredonia an off campus apartment building caught fire and the school actually housed and gave aid money to these students free of charge afterwards. They were given money to get a few things they needed, along with money to eat on campus since they lived off campus.
I think you need to contact someone in your "Student Affairs" department at school (thats who was in charge of it at my school, I did an internship at the office at the time. which is how I knew) Their has to be some other ways they can be helping you!
Good Luck and let us know how it goes!
I'm excited that you've been to Oney a few times :p
But thank you, I will be looking into what that department has to offer us or can help us with. I know the school is raising money for a "Matteson Hall Fund" but I'm not sure where the money will be going. I'm not expecting anything out of it, I honestly would rather see the money go to restoration efforts and the girls in the suite who lost everything. I lost quite a few material things in the fire but my friends and fellow students are all safe and I've learned a ton of life lessons in the process of this whole thing. Plus I have one hell of a story to tell people :p I'm really not looking for any sort of compensation, but help to regain a normal life would be helpful. But I know that takes time.
I really need to applaud my school though and brag for a moment. They have been amazing throughout this entire thing. Though people would tend to disagree with me, our school has really pulled through. The fire started Wednesday afternoon and two hours later they already had the Red Cross on their way to set up a shelter for the night. In less than 24 hours, they school had cleared enough rooms on campus and pushed people together to house the 60 of us that would not be able to return to the 3rd floor this semester. They were even to keep each pair of room mates together so that we wouldn't have to go through this completely alone. In most cases, they kept 4 out the 6 people of each suite together and put the other two either someplace else in the same hall or in the building right next to the others. They were also able to find room at the local Holiday Inn for the other 100+ students who will be displaced until friday, which they're hoping to move them back in then. The college book store donated a hoodie and t-shirt to each student in Matteson and the Residential Life Office donated water bottles, notebooks, school supplies and everything. And theyve kept the entire campus updated throughout the whole thing. They've been super helpful and I, along with many others are so thankful. Walmart even donated $35 gift cards to all third floor students.
Here are some pictures though, I thought I'd share. Sorry if they're big.
This is what we saw from the front of the building 5 minutes after the fire alarms went off.
You can see their bed posts on fire. This was the beginning of the fire. The room next to it got torched too.
This is the second floor. It was untouched.
Third floor. This is the little hallway looking out from our door. Quite a difference from the second floor, huh?
This was the door to my suite though... the one we left wide open... so smart.
Then the last one. Idk why I like this picture but I do. This was Monday when we had to move out up there. You cans ee they started to clean some parts of the walls but they still have a long way to go.
Wait, one more. My frog that survived for two days through the smoke and no food. She didn't officially have a name (because I thought she was a he and her original name was Flint) but I think I'm renaming her Maddie (for Matteson, not Gardner guys.) And haha I know she's weird looking :p