St. Ambrose students travel to provide service in six U.S. locations during spring break.
DAVENPORT—St. Ambrose University students will be among 5,000 college and high school students who will spend spring break helping people realize their dream of owning a quality and affordable home.
Thirteen SAU students are participating in Habitat for Humanity’s alternative spring break program, Collegiate Challenge, in which students will travel to 35 U.S. states to help build homes and improve local communities.
Members of the SAU chapter of Habitat for Humanity will leave the Davenport campus at 7:30 a.m. Saturday, March 11, and caravan 12 hours to Fairfield, Alabama, where they will work side-by-side with the soon-to-be homeowners and other students from across the U.S.
Quetzal Morin, president of the SAU Habitat chapter said the trip is a great opportunity to connect with other college students, hear their stories and learn more about how they live.
Most importantly, it is a way to serve and support families who need and want a place to call home. “It is nice to be able to say I spent spring break helping to build a house, instead of spending it on a beach,” Morin said.
St. Ambrose students also will be taking spring break service trips to Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood to work with under-privileged school children who predominantly speak Spanish; to the Well of Mercy in Chicago, a non-profit that offers shelter and support to single mothers; Kansas City, Mo., where they will assist at a pair of Catholic Worker Houses, providing meals to the poor and homeless; and to Memphis where they will join with students from other colleges and universities working with the Quad Cities-based Living Lands &Waters organization to clean the waters and shores of a large lake.
In the past year, the SAU Habitat chapter coordinated bakes sales, fundraisers and accepted donations to raise money for its service trip. Each SAU student is also paying $200 to cover the remaining expenses.
In all, the SAU students will spend four days working at the construction site. “We are so excited. We know we will be building, but we do not specifically know what we will be doing,” she said.
The students also will have two free days to explore the area.
According to Mark Andrews, vice president of Volunteer and Institutional Engagement at Habitat for Humanity International, the Collegiate Challenge program offers a tangible way for students to improve local communities and work alongside Habitat homeowners to help them build a better future. “We’re grateful for their hard work, which will have a lasting impact on the students and in hundreds of communities nationwide,” he said.
This month, students will volunteer in 142 communities and donate more than $1 million toward Habitat’s vision of a world where everyone has a decent place to live.
For more than 25 years, Habitat for Humanity has provided alternative school break volunteer opportunities to high school and college students through its Collegiate Challenge program. The unique one-week volunteer program is offered year-round. Since 1989, nearly 256,000 students have participated in the program and donated more than $28.1 million to support Habitat’s work in local communities across the U.S.
Habitat’s Collegiate Challenge is one of several opportunities for the next generation of leaders to engage in Habitat’s work. For more information or to register for a Collegiate Challenge event, visit habitat.org/volunteer/travel-
About Habitat for Humanity
Driven by the vision that everyone needs a decent place to live, Habitat for Humanity began in 1976 as a grassroots effort on a community farm in southern Georgia. The Christian housing organization has since grown to become a leading global nonprofit working in nearly 1,400 communities throughout the U.S. and in nearly 70 countries. Families and individuals in need of a hand up partner with Habitat for Humanity to build or improve a place they can call home. Habitat homeowners help build their own homes alongside volunteers and pay an affordable mortgage. Through financial support, volunteering or adding a voice to support affordable housing, everyone can help families achieve the strength, stability and self-reliance they need to build better lives for themselves. Through shelter, we empower. To learn more, visit habitat.org
