This weekend, as thousands of Penn State students head off for a week of fun on the beach, some are leaving for a different purpose, forsaking sun and surf to perform charitable services.

Students are spreading out all throughout the country and the world, as they strive to help others.

Groups are planning to travel to rural Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Massachusetts, California and New Mexico, as well as Haiti, Guatemala and Jamaica.

The Nutrition Service Project, founded and directed by Annina Burns (junior-nutrition and media studies), will send 10 students into rural Pennsylvania to teach a nutrition program to about 200 low-income elementary and middle school students.

This is the third year that the trip has been underway. On the weekends, the students will perform community service projects.

"The fundamental mission of the project is to teach students about health and nutrition and create an awareness of the importance of nutrition in the school curriculum," Burns said.

Sometimes students who are not involved in any organization also wish to donate their time.

The Crabapple Gang, an unofficial student group, is heading to California to help replant a section of the Tahoe National Forest.

Each of the 27 students hopes to plant 1000 trees during the week.

"Our mission is to promote awareness and appreciation of the natural world, foster an individuals' responsibility to community and environment, and provide a form of service and education for all," Brady Smith (senior-horticulture) said in a recent press release.

Won by One, an independent ministry service on campus, is traveling to Jamaica to help build homes.

"I am going to Jamaica to do a service/missions trip," said Laura Samuelson (junior-science). "We are going to be building houses, and last year we also helped to dig away a hillside for a fish hatchery to be put in."

Twenty students from Penn State will make the trip to Jamaica, along with 20 students from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown.

Various other religious groups are also traveling in the name of service.

Penn State Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life and the Christian Student Fellowship have both planned trips to eastern North Carolina. Hurricane Floyd destroyed the area in 1999, and the groups will help to rebuild homes and schools in the community.

Penn State also has an Alternative Spring Break club for community projects. This spring, members are fanning out to eight different locations throughout the country to perform various service projects involving soup kitchens, AIDS awareness and women's issues.

"I just think (the trip) is a lot of fun," Samuelson said about why she passed up a normal spring break in favor of service. "It's really awesome to see God's work through a lot of it."

Other students agreed that the trips could be better than normal spring breaks.

"After all, how many times can you go to Florida?" said Smith.

Students often offer supplies as well as their services.

"We take down medical supplies, books, all kinds of clothes . . . it all goes to the people in the towns," Samuelson said.