Thursday, March 27, 2008
Rebecca Ferm could have spent spring break lounging on the beach and drinking daiquiris in Cancun or South Padre Island like many other students. Instead, the Chanhassen, Minn., sophomore took a different route, helping build and repair homes in Lakeshore, Miss., a community still struggling in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Ferm was one of 49 KU students who volunteered at seven locations scattered across the United States as part of the KU Alternative Break program. Participants engaged in a wide range of service activities, including working with children with life-threatening illnesses and serving meals to the homeless.
Though Ferm and her group endured a 15-hour drive, swarms of mosquitoes and undrinkable tap water, she said small things like seeing the gratitude on an elderly woman’s face after clearing her lawn of enormous logs made everything worthwhile.
“I kind of felt that whole warm and fuzzy feeling inside, knowing I just made someone’s day brighter,” Ferm said.
Ben Berning, Shawnee junior and KU Alternative Break co-director, said his volunteering experiences with the program in Orlando and Charlotte in 2007 established a foundation for lifelong service. He said the freedom of program’s coordinators and participants to shape their own trips made alternative breaks an attractive option.
Despite some struggles with nature, Ferm said the program affected her enough that she was considering participating again next year.
“You make this trip your own,” she said. “You can choose how much you want to impact that family you are helping or how much effort you want to put into that house.”
Like Berning, many students take multiple trips with the program. Amber Richmond, Marion junior, volunteered during spring break near Chicago a year ago and then worked with Cerebral Palsy and ALS patients in Fort Worth, Texas, this year. She said the patients were ecstatic to see her group, and both sides enjoyed every minute of their time together.
One Cerebral Palsy patient named Shawn had an especially profound effect on her, Richmond said. Though he didn’t have the ability to speak, she said Shawn communicated through a computer using a webcam as a cursor.
“I sat and talked to him for an hour, and he replied to everything I said,” she said. “He is brilliant just like any one of us. He just doesn’t have the function that everyone else does.”
Part of the experience was the group bonding that occurred between the seven students at each site, Berning said. He said long road trips to the destination and spending seven straight days in each other’s company forced participants to form bonds with each other.
Richmond said although it took awhile to open up, her group grew close by trips end.
“We ended up talking for two or three hours after dinner about anything and everything,” Richmond said. She added that they talked about, “Our families, our backgrounds and where we came from.”
Unfortunately, not everyone who wants to participate gets the chance. Berning said more than 10 applicants for the program had to be turned down because of limited spots.
“Quite frankly, it’s logistics,” he said. “We can’t send everybody because we just don’t have enough cars, enough sites or enough people.”
The program costs $250 per student and the fee covers all food, lodging and transportation. KU Alternative Breaks also offers programs for select weekends and winter break. As part of the the program students also earn either one or two credit hours as part of the University curriculum.
—Edited by Nick Mangiaracina
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