“Well, if I didn’t have them here now helping out the way they’re doing, I don’t know. I guess it would have to stay as it is,” Allen said of the home she has resided in for about 35 years. “It just would be impossible for me to try to get this work done without the help of the volunteers.”

The ASB group spent spring break at Camp Hope in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans and working with the organization Rebuilding Together in the Treme Neighborhood.

“You get to travel to a new place, you get to experience the people, you get to experience the culture and in the end you get to have a good time and you get to help people,” said Brad O’Neil, an international relations junior and ASB site leader. “You get to see the feedback almost immediately of what your impact is.”

Aside from the service project, the group took trips around the city, including visits to the French Quarter.

“There’s no place like New Orleans,” materials science and engineering senior Liz Galea said.

“I always think of the balance between so much culture, this beautiful city and still a city that needs a lot of help.”

To prepare for the trip, the group watched documentaries and read a book about a character’s struggles after Hurricane Katrina.

“It’s important to understand what a people went through if you expect to help them,” O’Neil said.

Each alternative group was made up of 12 members: two site supervisors such as O’Neil and Galea, a site staff adviser and nine participants.

“So many different people come together for a cause,” Galea said.
“You just have such a strong bond. … You just kind of depend on each other.”

Three ASB groups traveled to New Orleans during the break. Two helped with disaster relief and one focused on HIV/AIDS issues.

“It’s probably the most rewarding, noble, exciting, fun, adventurous things you can do on a spring break, or for any week for that matter,” O’Neil said.