One in 10 Holy Cross Students Spending Spring Break Doing Community Service

The Holy Cross Chaplains’ Office reports that 260 students — or one in 10 students at the College — are spending their spring break this week doing community service. This is the largest group in the 24-year history of the Spring Break Immersion Program.

In 2006, the Chaplains’ Office expanded the longtime program beyond Appalachia to include New Orleans and the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the region. Last year, 196 students participated.

Commenting on the jump in participation, Martin Kelly, assistant chaplain who oversees the program, said: “We are not sure if this is a trend that will continue, but we certainly hope so.”

Students are working on a range of activities. “Sometimes students will spend time with people, meeting the local community,” explains Kelly. “Much of the time in Appalachia is spent repairing homes for elderly or disabled people or working in schools. The Gulf Coast typically requires intense clean up work. There is less ‘gutting’ of houses now and more rebuilding work, which is a hopeful sign for the region.”

While students will work between 30 and 40 hours during the week, the immersion trip is not only about getting tangible tasks done, Kelly says.

“We go to assist, but also to accompany people and to build relationships, and to be in solidarity with the people in each of these regions,” he says. “Sometimes an hour speaking with a person on the front porch is truly the most important task at hand.”

He adds, “The experience provides students to encounter poverty in our own country, and they are able to visit people and communities that are often not on people’s list of places to vacation. They encounter the gifts and the beauty of these places, as well as the struggles. Most appreciate forming close friendships within their group.”

The students have traveled to 15 different sites in five states. Holy Cross partners with two organizations to find the sites. Volunteers for Community works with the Chaplains’ Office in Appalachia, and the Gulf Coast sites were set up with the assistance of the New Orleans Province of the Society of Jesus’ Katrina Relief Office.

Staff members from those organizations are at each site — churches, town halls, and “camps” in the case of New Orleans — to give students direction, says Kelly. Otherwise, the trips are student led. No faculty or chaplains accompany any of the groups. Co-chairs Tim Dugan ’08, an English major with a concentration in Peace and Conflict Studies who is in the Teacher Education Program from Andover, and Jess Blau ’08, a psychology major from Jackson, N.J., have participated in the program for several years and have spent countless hours since September working to make this experience rewarding for fellow students, Kelly says. Students applied in late October and early November for the program.

“It speaks to the maturity and dedication of our student leaders that so much is entrusted to them,” Kelly says.

Students who traveled to Appalachia paid $250 and those who traveled to the Gulf Coast paid $450, although that covered only a part of the overall costs which includes airfare, van rentals, donations to the host communities, and food. Kelly says the Chaplains’ Office is grateful for support they received from both the Office of the President and the Student Government Association Reserve Board to cover all of the additional costs.

Related Information:

Chaplain\'s Office