Looking back on spring break, many people do one of two things: don’t remember any of it, or try not to remember any of it. For more aspiring people, spring break can be an opportunity to gain a feeling of pride and accomplishment.
One way to do this is by participating in Alternative Spring Break. Students can go to several destinations in Mexico, Canada and the United States to do volunteer work.
“At the end you will save money and have had a great time,” said Kristin Collett, a human biology junior and secretary for the Alternative Spring Break club. “It’s nice knowing you did something that meant a lot to yourself as well as someone else.”
If someone was interested in going to Matamoros, Mexico, they could expect to be one of 16 people who would help build homes in refugee camps as well as help out in an orphanage.
The program also offers trips to Merida, Queretero or Puebla, Mexico; where students would volunteer at one of five social agencies including an elderly home, a food shelter, a hospital for disabled children, an orphanage and a center for recovering alcoholics.
One of the site leaders this year, Beth Jenkins, a Spanish senior, took the trip to Merida last year where she spent 10 days at an elderly home. Among her many experiences, her most memorable was the party the volunteers threw for the residents of the Santiago Senior Citizens Home at the end of their visit. Jenkins still laughs as she remembers one of the elderly residents who “wrote and sang a Spanish song for all us volunteers.”
She realized the positive affect her visit had when she saw all the senior citizens dancing and laughing with the volunteers.
Twelve volunteers looking to go to Canada will be able to go to Quebec City where they will help out at the local Salvation Army.
For those people looking to stay closer to home, there are several domestic destinations available. Eight people going to North Dakota will be able to travel to the Rosebud Indian Reservation. Last year, Sarah Cheek, an art education senior and Alternative Spring Break co-chair, was part of a group of 24 who went to Tennessee where they volunteered at the Cumberland Trail, located at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.
There students developed and maintained the hiking trails. During her time off of trail restoration, Cheek said she hiked.
“(I) hiked 10 miles to the top of the Smoky Mountains,” she said.
Another night she said she went to a local nightclub where she learned to country line dance to a local bluegrass band.
Twelve students will go to Colorado where they will work with the Colorado environmental coalition, surveying land for Congress to be set aside for a wilderness preservation.
Another 12 students can go to the Equine Horse Therapy Center in Pennsylvania, where they would assist the visually impaired in various activities such as riding horses.
In Florida, 12 students will help develop a youth center devoted to combating youth violence.
Twenty-four volunteers can go to New Orleans where they will spend time at halfway houses acting as companions for drug and alcohol addicts.
In New York, 12 students will help out at a soup kitchen and homeless shelter. A retreat to San Francisco will give 12 students the opportunity to assist homebound HIV and AIDS patients in a program similar to meals on wheels. Finally, 12 Alternative Spring Breakers will go to Washington, D.C. where, among other things, they will volunteer at a soup kitchen.
Trips range in price from $275 to $700 and include lodging, food and transportation.
Volunteers usually work from morning until 5 p.m. After that, students are free to spend their time however they choose.
Volunteers can go to bars, clubs and restaurants surrounding local areas, Jenkins said.
Rules on items such as alcohol are site specific and must follow local laws. About 275 students will participate.
There is a $50 deposit to reserve a spot, and it is recommended to sign up for the waiting list if the trip you want to go on is full. The 2001 trips to Merida, Queretero, Colorado, New Orleans, New York and San Francisco are full.
For more information about the Alternative Spring Break, go to www.msu.edu/~asb.
BRANDON HINKLE
