Alternative Spring Break 2009



Spring Break, Alternative Style

 

Some venture to distant countries to teach orphaned children, some journey within the United States to feed homeless people and to clean polluted beaches, some remain in Harrisonburg to assist at a daycare center. All are James Madison University students, who instead of spending spring break on more traditional trips, choose to serve others in the Alternative Spring Break Program.

More than 400 JMU students, faculty and staff are spending their March 7-15 holiday serving others as volunteer workers.

A total of 34 teams, ranging in size from seven to 16 members, are engaged in a variety of human service, environmental and educational projects in California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, as well as Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Jamaica and New Province Island in the Bahamas.

Each team is led by two student trip leaders, who plan the venture, and a learning partner who is a faculty or staff member at JMU. Participants on domestic trips within driving distance each pay between $250 and $350 to spend the week in service to others. For ASB volunteers traveling to more distant sites in the United States and abroad, airfare adds to the individual cost.

The JMU teams are fairly evenly split between trips requiring driving and flying, said Dusty M. Krikau, assistant director of Community Service-Learning at JMU who trains the trips' student leaders. For 15 weeks before their spring break ventures, the students work with Krikau to develop their skills to lead small groups into environments that range from urban to undeveloped. While many teams dispatch to volunteer assignments where they have housing provided, others, such as the group heading to Cayo Costa State Park in Florida, must pack all their supplies to live for a week without any supply source.

Domestic Driving Trips:

  • Café 458, Atlanta - to work in a restaurant open free to homeless people during the week
  • Camp Vacamas, New Jersey - to engage in activities with children from inner cities and to help the staff prepare the camp for summer
  • Cayo Costa State Park, Florida - to remove invasive plants and to clean the beach
  • Community Service Center, Winter Park, Fla. - to work with youth in after-school sports, arts and academic activities
  • The Fuller Center for Housing and Koinonia Farm, Georgia - to help build houses and to work on the farm's garden and grounds
  • Gay Men's Health Crisis, New York - to learn about the nonprofit group's fight against AIDS
  • InterFaith Shelter Network, Florida - to assist with meal preparations and to help children with homework (Partnership with the JMU Center for Multicultural Student Services)
  • LifeSpan Inc., Charlotte, N.C. - to work with children who have developmental disabilities and to complete minor maintenance work
  • Operation Breakthrough, Kansas City, Mo. - to tutor preschool children and to work in the center's warehouse
  • Practical Academic Cultural Education Center for Girls, Immokalee, Fla. - to tutor and to participate in after-school activities and to volunteer with girls at a local soup kitchen
  • Project Lazarus, Louisiana - to organize activities and to paint at the center that provides care for AIDS patients in a home-like setting
  • Sheffield Place, Kansas City, Mo. - to help with activities and maintenance at the shelter and support center for homeless single mothers and their children
  • Sunshine Shelter, Natchez, Miss. - to provide daycare and to work with other local organizations
  • Volunteers of America, New Orleans - to help rebuild homes devastated by hurricanes and to tutor children
  • York Place, York, S.C. - to work with emotionally troubled children
  • Harrisonburg/Rockingham County - to work with the United Way in various ways, including helping at the Elkton Area United Services, Generations Crossing and NewBridges Immigrant Resource Center, to work at the Salvation Army, Camp Still Meadows, Price Rotary Senior Center and Our Community Place, and to do river cleanup near Grand Caverns
  • Chavies, Kent. - to do emergency home repairs (partnership with Catholic Campus Ministries)
  • New Orleans - to help with hurricane relief work (partnership with Catholic Campus Ministries)

 

Domestic Flying Trips:

  • Casa Familiar, San Diego - to help in the Hispanic community and to gain new perspectives on the issue of immigration
  • Catalina Island Camps, California - to improve the natural environment of the island through invasive plant removal, trail building, landscaping, beach clean up and scientific data collection
  • Cherokee Nation, Tahlequah, Okla. - to work with the Head Start program and to do maintenance at the center
  • Community Collaborations International, Harris and Galveston counties, Texas - to help with construction activities, rehabilitation of existing homes and environmental projects
  • Aldo Leopold Wilderness Area of Gila National Forest, southwestern New Mexico - to work on trail and site maintenance projects (Partnership with University Recreation)
  • Oglala Lakota Nation, Pine Ridge Reservation, S.D. - to build bunk beds and to renovate and rehabilitate homes of the Lakota people
  • Redwoods National Park, California - to help with trail cleanup and maintenance, conservation efforts and bridge reconstruction
  • Sea Base, Big Munson Island, Fla. - to help with hurricane and environmental cleanup and restoration and to build boardwalks and walkways
  • Zion National Park, Springdale, Utah - to work on trail maintenance, including trimming of back branches and underbrush

 

International Trips:

  • The Committee for the Upliftment of the Mentally Ill, Jamaica - to help people in utilizing community resources
  • Las Cruces Biological Station, Costa Rica - to work on trail and garden maintenance, exotic species removal and garden inventory and to help with maintenance projects at two nearby schools
  • Orphanage Outreach, Monte Cristi, Dominican Republic - to teach English and other elementary-school courses, such as mathematics, science, reading and art
  • Organization for Youth Empowerment, Honduras - to work in the final stages of a leadership program developed for the youth to gain knowledge in the areas of Honduran politics, economics and education system
  • St. Andrews Home for Girls, Kingston, Jamaica - to work in construction and to help with the after-school program at the home and to assist with social services in the community (Partnership with Canterbury)
  • Sandy Bank Primary School, Treasure Beach, Jamaica - to promote reading among students who are reading below grade level
  • Uriah McPhee Primary School, New Province Island, Bahamas - to provide teambuilding programs using a portable low ropes course (Partnership with University Recreation)