Throughout my time in college, I have done alternative spring breaks through St. John's. My freshman year I went to Huntsville, Alabama and worked with Habitat for Humanity. Sophomore year I got the first stamp in my passport from going to Cholula, Mexico and doing service work through an organization there. Last year I traveled to Jonestown, Mississippi and did construction work. I have loved all of my experiences through ASBs and knew I couldn't do anything else for my senior year. In the past I had chosen which trip to go on based on location (states I have never been before) and type of trip. I knew I wanted to do a construction trip again but didn't have any trips that went to states I had not been to. Kentucky had always been my second choice for a trip and after someone from Christian Appalachian Project, the organization that we worked with, came and talked at Blessed Trinity when I was home over the summer I knew that was the trip I was going on.
Meeting the group for a few times before the trip made me reminisce on how I was before my first ASB trip freshman year and how little anxiety I had about this trip. That was a nice change. This trip had an added bonus of renting vans and road-tripping down instead of taking a bus. After 20 hours one-way on a bus last year for ASB I was perfectly fine with that.
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| Hanging out on the ride down |
We left before 6am on Sunday morning and drove through snow until Cincinnati where the precipitation turned to rain. This ended up being very problematic. When it's raining and then gets cold it turns to ice and snow (just in case anyone missed that one). We arrived around 3:30 and were told that there was a good chance we would be delayed going to the worksites. That delay turned into spending 2 days inside and still getting out an hour late the day after that.
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| Sledding on cot mattresses |
Christian Appalachian Project (CAP) does many different projects, one of which is Work Fest, which takes place for three weeks over various college spring breaks. There were seven different schools there for week 1 (when we were there). University of Florida was the only school that traveled north to get to Kentucky and also the only school that was excited about the snow.
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| Safety Fashion Show |
While we were stuck inside for 55+ hours, there was stuff to do. We had more reflection time and a fashion show displaying our handiwork with brown craft paper and duct tape. We also had a chance to learn how to use different skills and power tools that would have normally been done on the job site.
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| Proper attire for pulling staples from a house covered in lead based paint |
The two days we worked, I spent most of my time pulling staples out of the side of a house covered in lead based paint. The previous owners had stapled plastic over all the windows to prevent drafts. We were working on replacing windows and eventually painting the house.
Even though we didn't get to do as much work as most everyone wanted to, I still had a great time helping others over my spring break. I am lucky enough that I am in a profession where I still have spring breaks and plan on spending the next few years finding some way to help others and give back to my community while I have a week off. I can't think of anything else I would rather do.
