Eighty-one students from Hamilton are foregoing sunny beaches and exotic resorts for their Spring Break, and instead are heading off to do volunteer work in seven cities during Hamilton's spring break, from March 9-25. The students are participating in Alternative Spring Break, a project intended to increase students' awareness and concern of social issues while generating a life-long interest in community service.
This year's Alternative Spring Break trips include:
- John's Island, SC, working through Our Lady of Mercy Community Outreach Service to participate in an after-school tutoring program and help with home repairs such as exterior painting.
- Hamilton students are in Hobe Sound, FL, working with the Blowing Rocks Preserve, assisting in nursery irrigation and restoration planting.
- Eleven Hamilton students are spending a week in Concord, NC, working with Habitat For Humanity, building homes for the needy and performing repairs such as shingling and siding existing houses.
- A group of Hamilton students are in New Orleans, LA, working with the Volunteers for America foundation, concentrating on a different area of the community each day. Activities will range from tutoring underprivileged children to visiting a retirement community.
- Nine Hamilton students will spend a week in Jacksonville, FL, working with a newly formed outreach organization called Community Connections with which the YWCA has merged. This will be Hamilton's third year working with the YWCA, through which students will be helping in a daycare environment, cleaning up community neighborhoods, and boosting local morale.
- A group of 9 Hamilton students will spend a week in Rock Hill working at a girls' home for young women who have run away or been removed from their homes. Activities will include maintenance projects such as painting fences and repairing playgrounds as well as involving the girls in games and sports during the afternoons.
- Hamilton students are spending a week in Pipestem, WV, working for the Appalachian South Folklife Center, a "progressive, non-profit, educational organization dedicated to a mountain heritage of freedom and self-reliance." Tasks will include home repair, painting, maintenance, and yard work for local communities and individuals.
Hamilton's Alternative Spring Break program (ASB) is sponsored by the Hamilton Action Volunteer Outreach Coalition, a student-run organization that provides community service in Oneida County. The Alternative Spring Break program was started in 1993 when 20 students traveled to Miami to work on Hurricane Andrew relief with Habitat for Humanity. The following year the number of students doubled; each year since the number of participants has increased.
Participants in the ASB trips hold a number of fundraisers throughout the academic year to earn money for their expenses, which include van rentals, accommodations, meals and in some cases, site fees.
For photos and stories from their trips, visit http://www.hamilton.edu/news/exp/asb2001
