Students volunteer to work with community development projects

By Susan Peterson

Gazette Staff

Pounding a hammer and nails for five days to repair rooftops might not be everyone's idea of a fun way to spend spring break.

But every year, about 30 undergraduates take this time away from classes to do community service in rural areas stretching from Boston to Washington, D.C. They do so through the Alternative Spring Breaks program of the Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA). The students help renovate homes and work with service groups in the communities they are visiting.

This year, the students -- who are divided into groups of 10 to 15 -- will travel to Big Ugly Creek, W.V., to help build a community center, and Cumberland, Md., to work with the Interfaith Consortium, a group of 75 churches that do community development projects.

Spring break runs from March 24 to 28.

"This is an opportunity to do something productive during spring break; it is not a beach vacation or the stereotypical trip home," said Crystal Redd '98, an Alternative Spring Breaks committee member who will be going on her third trip. "I see students who weren't as interested in public service before going on a trip become more involved afterward.

"We provide labor and enthusiasm [for these communities]," she continued. Each of the work groups is led by an experienced alumnus of the program.

Redd, who is from Charlottesville, Va., became involved with Alternative Spring Breaks during her first year at Harvard because she knew she wouldn't be able to go home, and saw the program as a good opportunity to do something unconventional with her vacation time.

Daniel Cohan '98, an applied mathematics concentrator from Leverett House and Dallas, Texas, agrees.

"This program offers a different setting than volunteer work in the Cambridge-Boston community," said Cohan, who led a work group last year. "It's very concentrated work in one week's time, and you see a different way of life while you are there. This also builds teamwork among a group of people who have just met."

The program, which operates on grants from the Harvard President's Public Service Fund, the Undergraduate Council, and the Phillips Brooks House Association, as well as the participants' own pockets, is limited to 30 students due to space available in the vans used to travel to work sites. Fifty students applied this year.

Redd said that the 1997 groups were selected in January and are ready to go.

"We're counting down the days," she said.