The students who participate in two days or more of service will receive tickets, including carnival access and lunch, to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo on March 15. Interested students should hurry though; there are only 12 spots available on each day of service. | Wikimedia Commons
UH students will skip the beach to volunteer with four different organizations over Spring Break.
The Center for Student Involvement has organized a community action break to run from Monday to Friday, with 12 spots available to sign up for each day.
During this week, volunteers will be sorting and inspecting food donations at the Houston Food Bank, assembling breakfast bags at Interfaith Ministries’ Meals on Wheels location, working on garden projects with Urban Harvest at Harry Holmes Healthy Harvest garden in Sunnyside and organizing the Search Homeless Services building.
Stephanie Schmidt, associate director at the Center for Student Involvement, says the community action break was inspired by last year’s UH Alternative Spring Break program in which students spent the week tutoring low-income children in Louisiana.
Schmidt said she hopes to expand UH’s program over the next several years to include local opportunities as well as those in other areas.
According to alternativebreaks.org, the origin of alternative breaks goes back to a group of college students in the early 1980s who sought to counter traditional Spring Break trips. After the development, the number of college students opting to volunteer over their break has been consistently increasing over the last two decades.
The good deeds of these students are not to go unnoticed. Those who volunteer for at least two of the days will be rewarded with free admission to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo on March 15, including a free lunch and carnival tickets.
