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