Gail Mills, business administrator of the Durham Rescue Mission, said she was jolted out of bed shortly after midnight a week ago by news of a fire in the local homeless shelter she helped found.
A spark from the wood stove that was being used to heat the facility had caused the food storage house to catch fire.
"It wasn't long before a fire was blazing and our food supply was going up in smoke," Mills wrote in an e-mail to local community groups urging them to help restock the food pantry. "I am so thankful to report that no one was injured."
A week later, members of the community-including many Duke organizations-are answering Mills' call to action through their efforts to replenish the Mission's food pantry.
The Edens Quadrangle Council is running a food drive to collect canned goods and other non-perishables for the Mission.
"Why wouldn't we try and help an organization in our own community?" said sophomore Jared Haftel, president of the Edens Quad Council and a Chronicle staff member.
The living area in the quad that donates the most food will receive a new ping-pong table for its efforts, Haftel said.
"This is just a case of one neighbor asking the rest of the neighborhood for some help," Lisa Beth Bergene, assistant dean for residence life on East Campus, wrote in an e-mail.
Residential Life and Housing Services is also conducting a centralized food drive on East, where students and staff can donate food.
Other organizations have taken a more creative approach in their contributions to the Mission.
Kappa Alpha Theta sorority and Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity held a T-shirt exchange on the Main West Quadrangle Thursday to collect clothing for the Mission.
Students were given the opportunity to rummage through boxes of T-shirts-which were initially donated by members of Theta and AEPi-and take one home in exchange for two T-shirts of their own.
"By the end, after everyone came and exchanged, we had collected what must be well over 1,000 shirts," sophomore Joel Ribnick, vice president and philanthropy chair of AEPi and organizer of the event, wrote in an e-mail. "Students, administrators, local Durhamites and even visitors stopped by."
The T-shirt exchange also collected monetary donations and hygiene products for the Mission, he added.
Students said they were satisfied to be able to help a neighborhood-affiliated organization.
"I think it's just good to know where you live and who you're living with," said sophomore Eden Pappo, service chair for Theta. "It's not even us giving back-it's doing what we want to do."
Ribnick emphasized the importance of giving back to Durham.
"I think it is important for Duke to help out in the local community because whether we like to admit it or not, we are living in Durham for four years," he said. "We owe it to the city to lend our support."
Ernie Mills, co-founder and executive director of the Mission, said he could not be happier with the response from the community.
"We've got about one month of the food already replenished-one third of the way there already," he said. "I am really overwhelmed at the generosity of everyone."
The fire caused the loss of a three- month supply of food and extensive damages to the house, Ernie Mills said.
"A good $50,000 hit," he added.
The fire was especially difficult for the Mission because it destroyed most of a donation of 10,000 cans of food recently given by the Wake Christian Academy in Raleigh, Gail Mills said.
The Mills opened the Mission in November 1974 as a home for men in need of food, clothing and shelter. In the past 30 years, the facility has expanded to include a home for mothers with children, a shelter for families and a shelter for single women seeking emergency, transitional or permanent housing.
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