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Alternative Spring Break 2011

A Spring of Hope

"You got involved in something larger than yourselves," Rich Harris told James Madison University's 2011 Alternative Spring Breakers when they gathered March 28 to talk about their March 5-12 experiences.

The director of Community Service Learning at JMU, the umbrella organization that includes the Alternative Break Program, commended members of the 35 teams for their service to others. Through the efforts of nearly 400 students, faculty and staff members, people in 13 states and seven foreign countries received volunteer assistance in health, education and environmental projects during Spring Break.

Several students took time from the evening's activities to share their experiences.

Casa Familiar team members proved themselves handy with power tools as they built a large planter. Click on photo to see full size.

Jenn Bailey, junior, interdisciplinary liberal studies major (to prepare for a teaching career), and Heather Heishman, senior, health sciences major
Casa Familiar, San Diego, Calif.
Bailey and Heishman's team spruced up the Casa Familiar property for the nonprofit organization that focuses on immigration issues. Team members built planter boxes, talked with neighbors about an upcoming clean-up project and served meals at the San Diego Rescue Mission.

"We came in as 12 strangers with different perspectives and different life goals," Bailey said. "We're a family now. Going on these trips not only changes your own perspective, but also teaches you to learn about other people. We met so many incredible people. I think we made a difference by showing people that others care about them."

Heishman, who will graduate in December, was part of another ASB team in 2009 that volunteered at Operation Breakthrough, a day center for youths in Missouri. "Putting a trip together (as a student leader) was an indescribable experience," she said. "It teaches you so much about your strengths and weaknesses. You learn about the person you're working with. You gain so much from it."

"Our biggest goals for our trip were to see growth in our members and to make sure this was not a mountain-top experience, where, 'OK, we're going and we're going to have a great service week and that was fun, and we've moving on with our lives,'" Bailey said.

"We went on a border tour. The only word I can think of to describe how I felt is 'hollow.' There was a point in the tour where we were within shouting distance of Tijuana. There was a little girl's bike on a tarp roof and seeing that literally broke my heart. The only thing I could think about while we were there was 'is this girl getting an education? Does she have a chance to progress?' I'm really thinking about working with Teach for America."

Alexis Wu prepares a meal at Cafe 458 in Atlanta.

Alexis Wu, senior, media arts and design major, and Daveon McMullen, sophomore, psychology major
Cafe 458, Atlanta, Ga.
Wu worked as a waiter at "a little cafe where they serve Sunday brunch to the general population and during the week they serve the population of people who have mental or physical disabilities." After meals were served and enjoyed, Wu and her fellow volunteers morphed into listeners. "We sat down with the people and talked about their stories, their personal lives."

Her experience at Cafe 458, coupled with an Alternative Spring Break 2010 trip to Horizon House, a day shelter in Indianapolis, has informed Wu's perspective. "I found out there is a whole lot more to hunger and homelessness. Homelessness can happen to anyone, due to sickness, the wrong job, family problems."

"I've always been service oriented, but my experiences while at JMU have pushed me to become more educated about homelessness issues. Now, I know what I'm an advocate of and when I speak to people, I understand the issue and some of its root causes. I'm very interested in nonprofit organizations. I always want to do service."

McMullen observed that "the people I talked with at Cafe 458 seemed to have a lack of trust for family. A lot of the people felt like their families had somehow taken advantage of them. There were a lot of individuals who were dealing with substance abuse and were trying to get service to get help. They were trying to get better so they could go back to jobs and careers."

"I've been working with the homeless population since I was in middle school in Hampton," McMullen said. "I've been involved in soup kitchens and such through my church." That long-standing commitment to service, coupled with his participation in the ASB 2010 team's work at the LA Mission in Los Angeles, Calif., has influenced his career plans.

"My goal is to be able to treat individuals in the community, where they are dealing with substance abuse, depression or mental illnesses. I want to work in mental health intervention. I'm still trying to decide if I want to work in counseling or intervention and treating such as therapies."

"I'm also ready for more alternative breaks. I'd like to work with people dealing with AIDS next year."

Jamie Lose, senior, media arts and design, and Rebecca Simonds, senior, biology
Project Lazarus, New Orleans, La.
Lose and Simonds are veteran Alternative Break Program participants. As sophomores at JMU, they were both on the team that served in Montego Bay, Jamaica, working with the Committee for the Upliftment of the Mentally Ill at its day center. During that experience, the students decided they wanted to serve as student leaders in their senior year.

"This year, we learned more about HIV and AIDS and the stereotypes that come with the disease," said Simonds. "We played games and did arts and crafts and did karaoke at Project Lazarus, which is a home, not a hospice. It's a place to get better."

"We also did some lawn maintenance and cleaning and gardening," Lose said. "Part of the job is to keep the place running effectively and efficiently. One of the Project Lazarus staff members told us that the point of volunteers is we shake up their day, we remind them that there is a world outside."

Living in New Orleans during Mardi Gras and observing the Alternative Break Program's substance-free policy and tradition wasn't a problem for the Project Lazarus team, the student leaders said. "We approached the week with the advice, 'Trust your group, trust yourselves, know a bad situation when you see one,'" Lose said. "Our students were so passionate about service that we weren't worried about being in New Orleans during Mardi Gras."

"In fact, on Mardi Gras, one of the Project Lazarus residents got to take us out into the city," Lose said. "He knew where to go that we could see it without being in it. So we got the experience plus an amazing day with a resident who got to show us something unique to his city."

"We were told by multiple staff and residents at Project Lazarus that there has not been a college group that's made connections with the residents like JMU has this year," Lose said. "That's a huge compliment. We all felt it, but to know that the week was special was wonderful."

Simonds and Lose believe their experiences during Spring Break influenced their lives for the months and years to come. "I'm living in Africa this summer working at an orphanage in a town that's been stricken with HIV and AIDS," Simonds said. "I definitely can't image going into it without having the background knowledge I gained at Project Lazarus. When we were there, we didn't feel like we were working with people who were sick. It changed my perspective and made me more prepared."

"This is such a unique opportunity in college to do something like this. It changed my whole college experience," Lose said. "In the future, I will keep traveling for sure. I'm getting certified to teach English as a foreign language, so I hope to travel and meet people who come from different backgrounds from me and learn to communicate with them and cut across that international or global barrier."

A hallway at the Sunshine Children's Center in Natchez, Miss., gets a fresh coat of paint from JMU team members. Click on photo to see full size.

Liz O'Malley, senior, communication sciences and disorders
Sunshine Children's Center, Natchez, Miss.
"At the Sunshine Center, we spent time with the kids being positive role models and helped paint and clean," said O'Malley, explaining that the center is a place for children who have been removed from abusive or neglected situations until foster care can be arranged. "They loved to play basketball with us. We went bowling and took a field trip to the Natchez Trace."

"I’m going to grad school in the fall and I'd like to continue service work wherever I go," O'Malley said. "Longer range, this spring's experience made me consider maybe adopting in the future or helping a foster child. All these kids just need someone to love them and they just don't have that."

Laura Wong and Jimmy Emmergy collect marine debris along the Kahuku coastline in Hawaii

Laura Wong, sophomore, hospitality and tourism management
Beach Environmental Awareness Campaign Hawaii, Kahuku coastline
Wong learned more about the importance of cleaning up Hawaiian beaches by talking with local people about the effects of marine debris. "We received a lot of questions from the locals about why we were visiting Hawaii, and when we told them we were on a service trip, they immediately had a positive response and were both receptive and appreciative of our support for their community."

"In regards to our service work, I learned so much more about different types of plastic, what can be recycled and what cannot," Wong said. "I learned about where we obtain plastic, where it goes after it is 'recycled' or thrown away, and I learned about the harmful effects plastic has not only on the environment but also on the human body."

While in Hawaii, Wong's team viewed the 2010 documentary "Bag It," which explores our consumptive use of plastic and what we can do to remedy it.

The team also coped with an unforeseen threat when the Hawaiian Islands were placed under a tsunami warning following the 9.0 magnitude earthquake that devastated parts of Japan on March 11. Due to fly out the next day, Wong and her teammates were aware of the warning but felt safe from their vantage near the University of Hawaii at Manoa. "No one was in panic, and everyone took our directions well and understood the situation. We did not take the tsunami lightly, and we felt very fortunate to have been in a good situation."

"Following this experience, I really would like to spread what I learned to others," Wong said. "I would like to first start off by making changes to my lifestyle (using reusable bags more often and for more products, being aware of what types of plastics I recycle, what I recycle), then I would like to educate those that are close to me and finally, I would like to inform the JMU community."

During the wrap-up meeting, Harris challenged the 2011 ASB participants to commit to sustained service to others. And, he said, they do not have to wait for another ABP trip to do so. "Everything you did on your Alternative Spring Break trip is here in our own backyard."

About the Alternative Break Program
ASB is part of JMU's award-winning Alternative Break Program, which coordinates opportunities for students to assist people while learning more about societal issues, including homelessness, education, immigration and health problems. The ABP, run through the university's Office of Community Service Learning, is composed of service trips at Spring Break and Thanksgiving, in May and on selected weekends throughout the year.

JMU's Alternative Break Program is a two-time recipient of the Break Away National Program of the Year award in recognition of the university's commitment to active citizenship. Break Away honored the JMU program in 2010 and 1999. The national nonprofit organization supports the development of quality alternative break programs by providing training and information to colleges and nonprofit organizations interested in creating lifelong active citizens.

Related Links:

• Community Service-Learning
• Alternative Break Program Flickr pool

April 14, 2010

Life-Changing Service

I've participated in two previous Alternative Spring Break trips – one as a participant my freshman year (the Gesundheit! Institute in Hillsboro, W.Va. in spring 2007) and one as a trip leader my junior year (Cayo Costa State Park, Fla., in spring 2009.) The first trip was a great introduction to alternative health care and communal living. I learned a lot about Patch Adams and his concept of "humanitarian clowning." After the trip, my group formed a JMU Health Care Clowning Club on campus. It was very rewarding to be a leader in the more independent volunteering experience in Florida. Our group had to be self-motivated in finding ways we could help around the island and balancing work with play on a beautiful beach in the Florida Keys.

— Anne Dreyfuss ('10)