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The Alternative School Break Club is hammering out final details of a Fall Break service trip to Baltimore, Md., Oct. 4-7.
Volunteers are sought to round out the student team. The trip’s theme is “Surrounded by Hunger and Homelessness,” according to Stephanie Cote, community outreach coordinator.
Those interested in participating should contact Cote at cotes@lafayette.edu by 8 a.m. Friday. Applications for other trips have just arrived and are due by noon Monday, Sept. 22 at the Landis Community Outreach Center in the Farinon College Center.
In Alternative School Break, teams of six to eight students conduct off-campus service projects: one over Fall Break, one during the January interim session, three during Spring Break, and possibly one in May around the time of commencement. Students also raise funds to offset the cost of travel and their stay. One or two Lafayette faculty and/or staff members accompany each team.
Why participate? “Students have an experience to bring back to the College and make other people aware of the large issue of homelessness in this country,” says Cote.
Last year’s projects included alleviating hunger and poverty in Washington, D.C., over Fall Break; building homes for low-income families in partnership with Calhoun County Habitat for Humanity in Anniston, Ala., and helping the Habitat affiliate prepare for the Jimmy Carter Work Project, over the winter break; working with Navajo children and assisting with home renovation in Tuba City, Ariz., over Spring Break; partnering with Habitat for Humanity in Honduras to build homes for low-income families in Tegucigala, over Spring Break; serving those suffering from HIV/AIDS and hunger in Chicago, over Spring Break; and cleaning up and restoring trails at Gila National Forest in Silver City, N.M., in May.
ASB has been a staple at Lafayette since students decided in spring 1993 to do something about the devastation left by Hurricane Hugo. Despite the blizzard that kept them from traveling to Florida, the idea survived and flourished in 1994 with the first ASB trip to Honduras, where a group of students worked with the family of an international student.
Trips vary by year, but one element remains the same: The student team members make the ultimate decisions. Cote says there is a focus area for each trip, and that although they are given a place to start, where the students go and whether they get there is ultimately up to them.