2008 Woodie Awards
Students on Care Break spend time helping others
Issue date: 3/4/05 Section: Opinion
When students think of spring break they probably associate partying on a warm beach or relaxing at home. But 80 SRU students will be spending spring break helping others.
Community service is something most students shy away from even when it's not vacation time. Many probably cannot imagine giving up drinking pina coladas in Cancun to help feed the homeless.
We at The Rocket commend the students who take their free time to benefit others who are less fortunate.
The Spring Break Care Break program actually provides students with the perfect opportunity to feel good about helping others while still getting out of Slippery Rock.
Students going on a Care Break have the chance to go to Atlanta, Denver, East St. Louis, Baltimore, San Diego, Pensacola, Fla. and Baton Rouge, La.
While in one of these cities, students will work with the homeless, women's shelters, inner city children and help to rebuild hurricane-ravished Florida, among other things. These selfless students will return to Slippery Rock feeling better about themselves knowing that the people they helped are also better off. Most students will just come back from spring break feeling tired because they spent every night staying up until 4 a.m. at a beachside nightclub.
In addition to helping others, the students participating in Care Break will still get to visit a city with much more to do than Slippery Rock. While these students will be busy during the day with various volunteer activities, most of their evenings will be free to explore the city.
In this way students are able to combine community service with fun activities thus creating the perfect spring break. Many of the cities that Care Break students will visit have a warm climate, so students may even be able to work on their tans, just as if they went to Panama City or Cancun.
Since 1994 more than 800 Slippery Rock students have taken advantage of this alternate spring break. During that span more than $1 million in services was provided over 134,000 hours of volunteer time. That's pretty good company to put yourself in while bettering the communities of other cities.
So if you're sitting at home watching cartoons on your spring break or trying to get yourself on "Girls Gone Wild" during your trip to Florida, just remember next year you could have a more fulfilling spring break by choosing to help others.
Community service is something most students shy away from even when it's not vacation time. Many probably cannot imagine giving up drinking pina coladas in Cancun to help feed the homeless.
We at The Rocket commend the students who take their free time to benefit others who are less fortunate.
The Spring Break Care Break program actually provides students with the perfect opportunity to feel good about helping others while still getting out of Slippery Rock.
Students going on a Care Break have the chance to go to Atlanta, Denver, East St. Louis, Baltimore, San Diego, Pensacola, Fla. and Baton Rouge, La.
While in one of these cities, students will work with the homeless, women's shelters, inner city children and help to rebuild hurricane-ravished Florida, among other things. These selfless students will return to Slippery Rock feeling better about themselves knowing that the people they helped are also better off. Most students will just come back from spring break feeling tired because they spent every night staying up until 4 a.m. at a beachside nightclub.
In addition to helping others, the students participating in Care Break will still get to visit a city with much more to do than Slippery Rock. While these students will be busy during the day with various volunteer activities, most of their evenings will be free to explore the city.
In this way students are able to combine community service with fun activities thus creating the perfect spring break. Many of the cities that Care Break students will visit have a warm climate, so students may even be able to work on their tans, just as if they went to Panama City or Cancun.
Since 1994 more than 800 Slippery Rock students have taken advantage of this alternate spring break. During that span more than $1 million in services was provided over 134,000 hours of volunteer time. That's pretty good company to put yourself in while bettering the communities of other cities.
So if you're sitting at home watching cartoons on your spring break or trying to get yourself on "Girls Gone Wild" during your trip to Florida, just remember next year you could have a more fulfilling spring break by choosing to help others.
