While other students will be spending Spring Break on the sunny beaches of Mexico or Florida, some Penn State students will be planting trees.

Crabapple Gang, an unofficial club made up of Penn State students, will be planting trees in the Tahoe National Forest in California, after spending a day working with inner city youth in San Francisco.

The one day spent working with youths in San Francisco will be followed by a day learning about the history of the forest. The group will meet up with a sylviculturist, or forester, and from there begin planting trees.

"We are a nature appreciation club with a community service wing," said Brady Smith (senior-horticulture), the organizer of the trip. "We really want to push the community service aspect."

The group plans to drive to the forest from San Francisco and spend the week planting trees in the Pendola burn area, a region of the forest destroyed by wildfires two years ago. The area is a protected home of the bald eagle, so the dead standing timber cannot be logged.

"Thirty people working 30 hours could plant 27,000 trees," Smith said.

Spring Break for Penn State happens to be during National Service Week. The group will travel to California to plant trees because they said they can get more accomplished in a week there then they could in only a day of service spent locally. They also said the cold weather and frozen ground prevents them from planting trees locally.

But that doesn't mean the group will never act in the State College area. They are looking into a project at Shaver's Creek for when the weather breaks.

"I have little brothers and sisters. I want this place to be here for them. I want my kids to have it," said Smith.

The group of 30 people traveling to California will be known as the Spring Break T.R.I.P, or Tree Reforestation Initiation Project.

The recent events involving UPAC running out of money have put a snag in the group's plans, but they remain optimistic about accomplishing their goals.

"I turned my budget in on time. We were placed 20th on the list and they only got through 17," said Smith. "What irked me was that I've paid $38 a semester for eight semesters, and when I went for my $260, it wasn't there. I felt they were irresponsible."

UPAC called the group's travel agency before getting in touch with them.

"That was five days before we found out," said Katie Schuller (senior-horticulture), the vice-president of the group.

The group will be collecting coins on street corners this weekend, and pending their recognition by the university as an actual club, hope to set up a collection table in the HUB some time in the near future.

"We have no account and won't find out if we are a real club until the end of the week," said Schuller.

That prevents the group from setting up a table on campus for people to donate money.

"I sent out a chain letter over e-mail saying we'd plant a tree in someone's honor for a dollar. It's called 'plant a tree for me,'" Smith said.

"The problem is getting people to send stuff in," said Lauren Torzillo (senior-horticulture), president of the group. "People don't want to waste paper and a stamp to send a dollar," she said.

Despite this, Smith and the group is amazed by the amount of support they have received from Penn Sate Alumni in State College and San Francisco and different university departments that have given anonymous gifts. The group has also received support from Eddie Bauer, which will outfit the group.

The group hopes that this trip will serve as the "pilot" project for trips in the future, and hope to do something similar every year.

"I can imagine a big collaboration with Ohio State where a bunch of students take two school buses down to the Smokey Mountains," Smith said. "We hope by the end of the week people will be impressed and inspired to do work like this," Smith said.

Donations for the Crabapple Gang's Spring Break Tree Reforestation Initiation Project can be sent to: 10 Schreyer Honors College, University Park, PA 16802