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Alternative spring break provides chance to give back |
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Saturday, November 24 2007 |
By TJ HEMLINGER
Staff writer
Young men and women ages 18 to 24 have an opportunity to turn spring vacations into a campaign to help rebuild communities damaged by hurricanes or years of neglect by participating in United Way’s Alternative Spring Break.
This will be the third year for UW’s plans for spring break. United Way and young adults will travel to Hancock County, Miss., Lake Charles, La., and Detroit in an effort to make a difference.
Alternative Spring Break (http://unitedway.org/asb) engages young adults in volunteer service. Two years old, it has sent nearly 500 people from every state in the country to regions devastated by the hurricanes of 2005. This year it is expanding into Detroit as well.
The week-long effort attracted 100 young adults in 2006 to help rebuild communities along the Gulf Coast that had been shattered by hurricanes Katrina and Ivan. This year there were nearly 400 people over a period of four weeks helping to rebuild Lake Charles, La., which had been damaged by Hurricane Rita.
Work in the three communities includes:
• Detroit, where workers will help build affordable housing, improve child care facilities and build ramps for people with disabilities.
• Hancock County, Miss., where they will help rebuild homes; and
• Lake Charles, La., site of Hurricane Rita in 2005, where they work on rebuilding homes and community agencies such as childcare, schools, libraries and mental health facilities.
Alternative Spring Break runs from the last week of February through the end of March, a total of five weeks. There is more information available at the ASB blog (http://blog.unitedway.org/asb).
The program is not limited just to college students. United Way has had people just out of the military or those between jobs in the workforce. The only requirement is age. United Way encourages people from all walks of life as well as those “young at heart” to volunteer as team leaders and lead a group of a dozen or so participants.
The program costs $150 for food, local transportation and building materials. In addition, participants must pay their way to and from the ASB site. United Way provides each participant his or her own Web site, which includes a fundraising tool to help cover expenses.
Lodging will be provided in dormitory-style arrangements, with some of the participants in Biloxi, Miss., being housed in tents.
There will be free time for the young people, and they will be covered by liability insurance, although participants must have their own health insurance.
Students will be mixed with others from different geographic and socio-cultural backgrounds on different work teams.
Each applicant must undergo a background check and cannot have been convicted of a felony.
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Last Updated ( Monday, November 26 2007 )
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