Many see spring break as a time to relax, unwind and gear up for the last leg of the school year. Nearly 300 MU students decided to take a different approach toward this hiatus by participating in Alternative Spring Break.
The students traveled almost 24,000 miles round-trip across 25 states and raised more than $78,000 to put in 15,000 hours of community service, according to the ASB Facebook page.
According to the ASB website, the organization started at MU as a part of the University YMCA in 1991, with only three trips during spring break. After nearly a decade, it became part of the Department of Student Life and the Center for Leadership Development and Community Involvement. Now it is a completely student-run organization and is steadily growing.
“There were 25 trips this year with about 12 students per site,” site leader Laura Ebone said. Ebone was selected for a site leader position in the fall of 2011.
“I had a co-site leader (Emily Legrand), and we decided we were going to do an environment trip,” Ebone said. “So we looked all around the country at a lot of different programs and ended up selecting to go to the American Hiking Society in Virginia.”
Seniors Legrand and Ebone both share a passion of the outdoors and the environment, Legrand said.
“My main reason for ASB is I think it’s important to give back,” Legrand said. “It’s my last break in college and my last chance to give a week of my time to the community.”
The two led a team of 10 students to Sky Meadows State Park, their worksite in Delaplane, Va.
“Everybody was really willing and excited to work and do manual labor,” Ebone said. “We ended up talking to the rangers to give us more things to do, so they gave us more.”
Ninety percent of the trip is how everyone interacts with each other and how open everyone is, Legrand said.
“I couldn’t have wished for anyone better,” Legrand said.
The ASB team was assigned to construct new paths throughout the 1,862-acre park.
“We got to this one path and started digging and we hit a rock,” Ebone said.
Ebone said the rock weighed around 1,000 pounds.
“It took us about two and a half hours just to uncover it,” she said. “We gradually all worked together to lift it up and pry other rocks underneath. It was so difficult, but we were so stubborn and just wanted to get the rock out of the ground.”
The 12 victorious participants then carved their initials into the rock, forever commemorating their efforts.
Not all ASB participants did manual labor. Students’ work with ASB impacts the nation in a variety of ways and on a multitude of levels. In 2012 alone, ASB helped out in dozens of different ways ranging from helping animals in Atlantic Beach, Fla., to AIDS assistance in Birmingham, Ala., to working with Habitat for Humanity in Foley, Ala.
“ASB is one of the best organizations I’ve been with in college,” Legrand said. “It’s a really good opportunity to bond with people without alcohol or drugs, and be happy to be doing something good.”
