While some college students are soaking up the sun during spring break, three groups of students from Buena Vista University in Storm Lake will be doing something more constructive. B-V-U director of community service Ashley Farmer-Hansen says they are on what’s called the AWOL program.
The AWOL or “Alternative Week of Offsite Learning” program is in its 11th year, with alternative spring breaks for students to work on service projects. Farmer-Hansen says this year’s trips are already planned.
This year, one group is going to Seattle to work with the homeless… another group will go a Tennessee Indian Reservation… and the third, an environmental project in the Florida Everglades. Last year during spring break, 14 students helped build a Habitat for Humanity house in Taos, New Mexico… eight spent the week at the Best Friends Animal Shelter in Utah… and 16 students went to Puerto Ricom, where they cleaned up a beach and helped renovate dorm rooms at the church camp where they stayed.
By Joel Hermann, KAYL Storm Lake