NIU students on a mission for spring break

by Tom Parisi

While thousands of the nation’s college kids flock to sandy resort beaches, a group of NIU students will travel to some of the country’s poorer regions for spring break.

Instead of making a splash, they’ll be making a difference.

The Newman Catholic Student Center’s annual “alternative spring break” is sending three teams of student volunteers on service trips. The center has been running the alternative trips for more than a decade, and they are as popular as ever.

In all, 42 NIU students (plus four alumni) have signed up for this year’s outings. At sites in Fort Smith, Ark., and Florence, Ala., the NIU crews will help build Habitat for Humanity houses. In the rugged Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia, the students will paint houses, repair homes and work with children and the elderly.

“We still get the warm weather, but we also get a sense of fulfillment, knowing that we made someone’s life better,” said Louise Schalasky, a junior mechanical engineering major from Oblong, Ill.

Personal vehicles will be used for the trip, helping defray the cost to students, which is just $75 each. The students leave Saturday, March 6, and return a week later. Registration is now closed.

“We never have problems finding students who want to participate,” said Pat Mulheran, Newman Center campus minister. She estimates that about half of the alternative spring breakers are returnees.

“It’s so much more than pounding a hammer,” Mulheran said. “The students make friendships across geographic lines and across generations. In Arkansas last year, about 150 people worked on one site every day, building three houses. A 70-year-old woman taught some of our kids how to put a roof on. They called her the Roof Mom.”

Brian Yandle, a 21-year accountancy major from Naperville, served as co-leader of the Fort Smith, Ark., group and is returning to the town this spring.

“What appeals most to me is the fact that I am doing something that makes a difference,” Yandle said. “When my week is done I can see results and know I’ve just helped change peoples’ lives. You just don’t get opportunities like this often enough.”

Twenty-year-old Katie Ginter is returning to West Virginia, where last year she repaired flood-damaged homes, insulated a trailer, worked in a food pantry and spent time with pre-school children at a Head Start program. She welcomes the hard physical work as a break from her study routine.

“It gets really busy at this time of the semester, and I get wrapped up in myself and my schoolwork,” said Ginter, a pre-physical therapy major from Aurora. “This is a way to take a step back. It takes you outside of yourself. The only thing we really have to think about is getting up in the morning and going out to help people.”

Senior Gloria Garza, a mechanical engineering major from Rockford, is participating in the Alabama trip for the fifth consecutive year. She’s driven by practicality.

“This is a lot cheaper than going to a beach, and I really do enjoy volunteering,” she said. “So it’s a great opportunity to combine the two – the broke college kid and the eager volunteer. It’s also a great opportunity to help the less fortunate.”

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