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During spring break last month, members of Lafayette’s chapter of Alternative School Break (ASB) got to work serving communities in the Gulf Coast, South Carolina, and Chicago.
Nine students traveled to Biloxi, Miss., a region in the Gulf Coast devastated by Hurricane Katrina, to work with Camp Coast Care. Students installed dry wall and siding at the organization’s headquarters located in a school gym. They also helped clean the volunteers’ quarters and provided them with meals.
“Our group learned so much throughout the course of the trip,” says team leader Emily Bernzott ’10 (Islip, N.Y.). “We certainly learned that the extent of the Katrina damage was so much more than we had anticipated, and this is nearly two years after the disaster. We worked in an area of the Mississippi coast that most people didn’t even hear about during the Katrina news coverage because of the concentration on New Orleans. The area where we worked was actually where the eye of the storm hit, and people lost entire homes. They returned to their beach front homes to find everything they owned had been completely swallowed by the Gulf of Mexico. The area was so barren; it was incredible.”
Joining Bernzott in the Gulf Coast were Devin Canavan ’09 (Milford, N.J.), government & law and foreign language major Rhonda Lee Davis ’09 (Bronx, N.Y.), art major Emily Gillespie ’07 (Hammonton, N.J.), American studies major Kyle Hoover ’07 (Westborough, Mass.), Elizabeth Matecki ’10 (Spring Lake Heights, N.J.), neuroscience major Chelsea Michael ’09 (Fredericksburg, Pa.), Jessica Williams ’10 (Rockville, Md.), and Jeffrey Zimmer ’10 (Brick, N.J.). Bonnie Winfield, director of the Landis Community Outreach Center, and Michael Free, security officer with Public Safety, advised the team.
“The most rewarding aspect of the trip was talking to some of the residents of the Gulf Coast area,” says Bernzott. “Even at the airport the day we arrived, we encountered a woman who was there for Katrina, and she thanked us for coming to help.”
Nine students worked to build affordable housing in South Carolina through the Sea Island Habitat program. In addition to constructing new homes for those in need, the group also helped renovate the program’s new office building.
“Our group really mastered working cooperatively and helping to encourage each other,” says team leader Nicholas Keller ’09 (Moutainside, N.J.), an international affairs major. “We learned just how lucky we are for everything we have. This trip helped put life into perspective and helped us to adopt a more worldly and less materialistic mindset.”
Keller’s team consisted of electrical and computer engineering major Michael Cuomo ’09 (Wyckoff, N.J.), Chinh Do ’10 (Hanoi, Vietnam), Lauren Flowers ’10 (Tylersport, Pa.), history and government & law major Sarah Fried ’09 (Short Hills, N.J.), Stefanie Mircovich ’10 (Wyckoff, N.J.), anthropology and sociology major Jacquelyn Marchese ’09 (Basking Ridge, N.J.), electrical and computer engineering major Jason Mills ’09 (Stony Point, N.Y.), and government and law major Anna Swanby ’09 (Oakdale, N.Y.). Amber Zuber, assistant director of the Landis Center, was the team’s adviser.
“The most rewarding aspect of the trip was the notion that we were giving up our spring break for a good cause and still having a great time,” says Keller. “We also really enjoyed talking to the families who were going to benefit from the new homes. This habitat experience was the best I had yet.”
Seven students traveled to Chicago, Ill. to work with the Great Chicago Food Depository and P.E.A.C.E. Community Center. Students worked with youth who live in neighborhoods known for gang-related violence. Many of the children go to the center for meals and a safe place to stay. They also learned about the process of how food is distributed from companies to the food bank and from the food bank to soup kitchens and kids’ cafes.
The Chicago team included Shao Ping Bao ’10 (Jersey City, N.J.), Laura Bochner ’10 (Bethlehem, Pa.), Sarah Kolba ’10 (Chelmsford, Mass.), international affairs major Sarah Maxwell ’09 (West Chester, Pa.), Joseph Peralta ’09 (Corona, N.Y.), history and government & law major Colleen Sullivan ’09 (Jackson, N.J.), and Janelle Thompson ’10 (Butler, Pa.). Emily Kernan, assistant director of the annual fund, advised the team.
For the last 13 years, Lafayette’s ASB chapter has traveled throughout the U.S. and abroad for community service projects. In the past, it has focused on issues such as sustainable development, affordable housing, Native American issues, and hunger and homelessness. Over the winter interim, ASB sent teams to Nashville, Tenn., San Francisco, Calif., and Lagunitas, Honduras.