Alternative trips put student volunteers to work


Thursday, March 5, 1998	Alternative trips put student volunteers to work By JODI HANAUER and TAMMY SIU Collegian Staff Writers While many University students will be relaxing during spring break, some University students will be donating their time to the betterment of humanity. Alternative Spring Break is a club that offers volunteer trips to University students, said Mike Rhoads (senior-secondary education). This year the group is offering five different trips for students to take.
*"They don't look at choosing an alternative spring break as giving up a luxury vacation. They look at it as getting an exciting opportunity to try something new or to continue a tradition."* - Christine Muchi (senior-labor and industrial relations)	There are two educational trips offered -- one to Pittsburgh and one to Harrisburg, said Rhoads, a coordinator for the Pittsburgh trip. The volunteers will be working in schools to help inner-city children. Jesse O'Neill (sophomore-secondary education) said this will be his second trip with Alternative Spring Break. He said he is looking forward to spending time with students of a diverse background who will help him gain insights into the field of education. "Anytime you can spend time in the classroom with expert educators, you are gaining valuable experience with your future in the field," O'Neill said. Rhoads said there is also an environmental trip going to Ithaca, NY, and two more trips going to Baltimore and Washington, D.C. The Baltimore and the D.C. excursions are going to be urban issues trips, said Alicia Ellis (junior-secondary education.) "We're going to be working in soup kitchens, delivering food to homebound AIDS patients and doing public housing work," said Ellis, one of the coordinators for the D.C. trip. Ellis recounted one of her best memories from last year's trip to Washington, D.C. "At the end of the week we had some food left over, and we got local supermarkets to donate some more food, and then we put it together in bag lunches and donated it to the homeless at midnight the night before we left," Ellis said.
`Alternative Spring break graphic illustration`	There are between 18 and 30 University students going on each trip, Rhoads said. Rhoads said many people who go on the trips essentially come in as strangers and leave as friends. Habitat for Humanity, an organization which brings together volunteers to build and fix houses for families, is also sponsoring several alternative spring break trips this year. Molly Scott (junior-engineering), secretary for Habitat, said the organization will be sending seven groups of fifteen members to either North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee or Florida next week.
`"Religious groups spread the word in unique locations" (The Daily Collegian, March 5, 1998)`	Scott, who will be traveling to South Carolina, said she is most excited about getting to know the people in her group as well as the family whose house they will be building. During their stay, the volunteers will be helping to lay foundation, plaster walls, set the roof and a number of other projects, said Christine Muchi (senior-labor and industrial relations). Although they will be working from about 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, Muchi said most of the people who decide to take these trips find the work rewarding. "They don't look at choosing an alternative spring break as giving up a luxury vacation," Muchi said. "They look at it as getting an exciting opportunity to try something new or to continue a tradition."