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Jared's Story Find out how a "village" of caring people help keep the smile on Jared's face.... MORE |
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Alternative Spring Break 2007
Heather Nguyen, Mohamed ElGamal, Shenai Spears, Deidre Hawkins, Indiya Freeman,
Ashley Jackson and Electra Davison are seven young Clevelanders who didn't lie on a
beach or sleep in late during their spring break. Instead, they volunteered for the
United Way Alternative Spring Break (ASB) program, held this year in
Lake Charles, Louisiana.
(View the scrapbook here.)
The ASB projects included rehabilitating homes damaged by Hurricane Rita, helping build
new homes, and cleaning up and restoring Camp Wi-Ta-Wentin, a Campfire USA youth camp.
Check out some of the ASB volunteers' blogs at
http://blog.unitedway.org/asb.
In all, nearly 350 Alternative Spring Break volunteers from across America gave 27,059 hours of work throughout March to the Gulf Coast rebuilding projects. The extraordinary collective effort credited repayment of nearly a half million dollars of Louisiana's debt to the federal government for emergency assistance. Nicole Langlois and Megan Tindira, United Way of Greater Cleveland staff members, participated as team leaders, living and working with ASB volunteers at Lake Charles. "The Lake Charles area is huge," said Nicole. "There are five parishes that make up southwestern Louisiana, and they all suffered significant amounts of damage. Some houses are still floating in flooded areas. Fifteen months after the hurricane, many areas are still a mess, with wind- and water-damaged homes." "The ASB volunteers were amazing -- I was so inspired just seeing them get to work," Nicole continued. "They never complained, never griped -- they got up at 6 a.m. every morning on their spring break to go hammer and dig and rebuild homes and clean up a children's camp -- and they did it every day with smiles on their faces." Play or download videos, photos and journals from ASB volunteers sharing their experiences about helping rebuild the Gulf Coast by clicking here. Under the direction of United Way of America, United Ways in numerous cities recruited participants, giving young people across the nation an opportunity to perform meaningful, critically needed public service work during spring break. United Way of Southern Louisiana hosted these volunteer teams, who stayed at the Volunteer Housing Center in Moss Bluff near Lake Charles. As in 2006, FedEx, a United Way National Corporate Leader, was the lead sponsor of Alternative Spring Break 2007. Also joining FedEx in supporting United Way's Alternative Spring Break this year was national video game retailer GameStop/EB Games. MTV supported the program as a media partner, promoting it on air and online to help recruit future participants. MTV also filmed ASB for a documentary called "The Amazing Break," which aired the weekend of March 23. How it All Began In 2006, 94 young people from across the country joined United Way and MTV for a week of service in Storm Corps as part of the first Alternative Spring Break program. Storm Corps participants helped in the rebuilding efforts in Biloxi, Mississippi and Foley, Alabama after the 2005 hurricanes, completing projects such as removing debris from yards, repairing porches and roofs, tearing out walls and cleaning mold-contaminated structures. Because of the program's success, the Alternative Spring Break program was extended to four weeks for March 2007. It is truly an inspiration to see these young people give their time and hard work in the service of others. To all Alternative Spring Break volunteers -- thank you for a job well done! If you're a young person in the Greater Cleveland area interested in participating in Alternative Spring Break 2008, or you just can't wait that long to get involved and would like to find out about volunteer public service opportunities right here in your community, please contact Nicole Langlois at 216-436-2184 or nlanglois@uws.org. | |