Alternative Spring Break: Students give back through service

The University of Akron News

03/20/2015

2014 ASB Habitat House

UA volunteers on the 2014 Alternative Spring Break trip with the home they helped build in South Carolina.

Sore muscles? Calluses? Sweaty brows?

Sounds about right for the 91 students and advisors who will happily board buses on Saturday and head south to spend next week’s spring break working hard on behalf of others. Since 2006, UA has organized the Alternative Spring Break service trips to areas in need.

Michael Duff

Returning volunteer Michael Duff will be working on another Habitat for Humanity House.

This year’s project sites:

  • At Camp Twin Lakes in Winder, Ga., the UA crew will help create a mile-long hiking trail and do painting, cleaning and repairs in preparation for the upcoming season at the camp, which serves children with disabilities.
  • With the North Carolina Coastal Federation, in Manteo, N.C., students will take part in clean up and restoration projects along the coast, as well as oyster restoration.
  • For Habitat for Humanity in Marion, S.C., where UA was selected as a Collegiate Challenge participant, students will help finish work started on other college ASB trips. The crew will do flooring, siding, roofing and window installation on a home for a family in need.

“Volunteers will plan to work eight-hour days Monday through Thursday at their project sites,” says Alison Doehring, assistant director of student life. “We anticipate more than 2,800 hours of service to be dedicated during this week, which amounts to more than $17,000 worth of minimum wage work for our partner agencies.

Volunteers on ladders

Student who may never have used tools before gain a variety of skills.

“Alternative Spring Break provides the opportunity for students to live and work with their peers for a week,” adds Doehring. “The groups give back during the day, and the evenings are filled with dinner, group reflection on the service completed and team-building activities. On the way home there will be time for a fun side trip, such as a stop in Myrtle Beach.”

Michael Duff, a second year volunteer, is looking forward to the week.

“Alternative Spring Break has given me a different outlook on the world because it gets me out of my bubble of just the daily college living of going to class, hanging with friends and going to work,” says Duff, a sophomore nursing major who also has participated in Habitat for Humanity through his fraternity, Phi Delta Theta. “ASB puts a group of students together who mainly don't know each other, and gives them a project to work on that brings everyone closer in the end.”

You can follow the UA volunteers through their Alternative Spring Break week — they will be posting photos and updates on social media using the hashtag #UAASB2015.

For National Volunteer Week, April 13-18, there will be a 2015 Alternative Spring Break photo display on Monday, April 13, at 3 p.m. in the Student Union lounges by Starbucks, and at a social event on Tuesday, April 14, at 7 p.m. in Student Union Ballrooms C, D and E.