MONROE, La. – ULM assistant women's basketball coach Amber Donnes hails from Hammond, Louisiana, but she has more than one hometown.
Donnes spent four years playing for the McNeese State University women's basketball program. She developed a strong bond with her alma mater and the city of Lake Charles. The bond is so strong that she refers to Lake Charles as her "second home."
Entering her second year with the women's basketball program at ULM, and her first as an assistant coach, Donnes felt an urge to help her second home in late August after Lake Charles and McNeese State was ravaged by Hurricane Laura. The Category 4 storm brought devastation to southwest Louisiana, and Donnes felt compelled to help.
"It was kind of an awkward feeling at first, because we got hit with Hurricane Laura, too," Donnes said. "I felt helpless in the sense of we need to be here and take care of ourselves first. We were out of power for three or four days, some people more. Our campus was shut down."
After the first few days following the storm passed, life started to return to normal in Monroe. It allowed Donnes to start thinking more about what she could do to help Lake Charles and McNeese. Her ideas began to gain some momentum after talking with the person who helped bring her to Lake Charles in the first place, ULM women's basketball head coach and former McNeese head coach Brooks Donald Williams. Williams is a native of nearby Jennings, La., and still has family in the Lake Charles area.
"Coach Brooks and I had the same thought," Donnes said. "I walked into her office and we both kind of already had a game plan ready. Once we started talking, we were just like this is what we have to do. She told me it would be awesome if someone spearheads it. I'm kind of like, 'Coach, I kind of already did that.'"
From there, Donnes put a plan in to motion to gather supplies and rally a group of people to visit Lake Charles over Labor Day weekend to help with clean up and recovery efforts.
"I got in my little age group around 20 of us that I knew would have my back or at least help out some way," Donnes said. "I knew, physically, some of them couldn't be there. But just the support and everybody wanting to give back to our college home is always really special. We met on that Monday, and I started making calls immediately when we were done."
Donnes also announced her plans to visit Lake Charles on social media.
"I made my little post on Facebook and Twitter about my plans to travel from Monroe to Lake Charles," Donnes said. "I heard so much support from so many people. I even missed some people. There's so many people up here that wanted to help and just couldn't. I felt lucky that it was Labor Day weekend, I had some time off, our (women's basketball players) were home. It just worked out. I wanted to get down there so fast. That's how the plan came into place. It was awesome and better than anything I expected."
Donnes soon had people from Monroe and ULM offering donations for her to take to Lake Charles, and she was able to load down a U-Haul trailer with bottled water and other goods.
"I was a little hesitant at first to make the post," Donnes said. "I made sure they understood I was a former player, that McNeese is my second home. I made sure that was clear for people that didn't know me and maybe people would share and post it. Northeast Louisiana has that home feel, too. They want to help. They're ready to help any way they can. I actually met a former tennis player and former football player (at McNeese) through Facebook. They live in Monroe. They were willing to do whatever. People saw the post and were ready to do whatever they could. I was really, really appreciative of that."
Donnes departed from Monroe in her Jeep with the U-Haul trailer attached on Thursday, Sept. 3, to take advantage of Labor Day weekend. Despite seeing photos of the damage that occurred a week prior, she said it was still a shock to see the damage when she arrived in Lake Charles.
"It was really, really hard," Donnes said. "The pictures do not do it justice. It's really the feeling whenever you get off the exit and you see stuff demolished. It was literally like a ghost town. It's crazy, the amount of workers that are working day in and day out to get that place up and moving. There's definitely hope, but there's a lot of shock when you get into Lake Charles. This beautiful city was up-and-coming, growing, and it's just devastating."
Donnes said when she arrived to offer help, she encountered people that were deferring help so others with less could have more assistance.
"It's so crazy how Lake Charles is," Donnes said. "The people are the best people around. You call and say let me come help you, and they tell you no, someone else needs it more than me. That was the hardest part, was figuring out who are we going to go help. Nobody wants help, but they all need help. That just speaks to how those people are and Louisianans are, really. They're literally so selfless that their roof could have fallen in and they'd be like please go help someone else who can't help themselves."
Donnes said the experience allowed her to assist people who had been there for her throughout her playing career at McNeese.
"I asked them to tell me where to go, what to do," Donnes said. "I think that's why I was able to accomplish so much and maybe get some people that wouldn't have come to Lake Charles to come and help. Megan Soileau, the head of student-athlete services at McNeese, reached out to me before I even reached out to her. She was ready to help me out. I was able to get some current McNeese students that maybe didn't know where they were supposed to go or what to do, and they got involved in helping out. Some of them, their own towns got hit and they're still coming to help out in Lake Charles. That was cool, to be a part of that and help them and give back to a place that was so good to me and all of my teammates."
Williams said seeing Donnes take charge in building a recovery and relief effort in Monroe and then assist on the ground in Lake Charles was a special moment.
"I coached Amber collegiately for three years and have had the opportunity to work with her this past year and a half, and I don't think I have ever been prouder of her than I was (Sept. 5)," Williams said. "Watching her passionately serve her college home was special. She has an incredible spirit and it was impactful for her to be able to share some joy and a helpful hand with a hurting Lake Charles and McNeese family."
It took just four years for Lake Charles and McNeese to make a lifelong impact on Donnes. Now, as a coach, she wants her student-athletes at ULM to have the same experience and feel that connection to ULM and Monroe. It started by missing out on a team group message on "Thankful Thursday," the same day that she was making final preparations to depart Monroe for Lake Charles. But she followed up with her own "Fired Up on Friday" message.
"I said, 'Sorry I missed Thankful Thursday. But I'm fired up on Friday because I'm able to give back to the university that gave me a chance to play, and I hope that you all know that it doesn't matter how long after you're removed, you can always make a mark and make a statement.' I just want them to feel that way about Monroe. Everybody can do it. It doesn't matter how long you're removed, if you're a starter, a walk-on, whatever. It doesn't matter. I texted the girls that. I think it was impactful."
Donnes said she has continued to learn from Williams, and is applying what she is learning.
"Being on this side now, as a coach, I think the best thing that Coach Brooks has taught me is to always lead by example," Donnes said. "Even if it only impacted one of our players, it's something they would do now that they might not have been comfortable doing, and they saw me do it, it's worth it."
Donnes said the whole process was rewarding.
"It might be a Louisiana thing, but it might just be a good heart thing, too," Donnes said. "It's not really where you work or what university you're for. When people are in need, you drop everything you have going on and do anything you as an individual person can do. That's what I felt."
