EMU - University Communications

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 24, 2003
CONTACT: Ward Mullens
ward.mullens@emich.edu
734.487.4400

EDITOR’S NOTE: Students will be leaving from the lower level of McKenny Union Friday, Feb. 28, 1 p.m.60

EMU STUDENTS VOLUNTEER SPRING BREAK TO HELP OTHERS

YPSILANTI – Springs Break means fun in the sun for most college students. But for some Eastern Michigan University students, it means long work days and helping those less fortunate.

Angelina Hamilton, a senior from Cleveland, Ohio, and 59 other EMU students will leave campus Feb. 28 and be sent to various locations throughout the country as part of Alternative Spring Break (ASB). The ASB program is part of EMU’s VISION (Volunteers Incorporating Service Into Our Neighborhoods) program. EMU students have been participating in ASB since 1992.

“ This is my third year. I keep doing it because it’s fun to interact with different people,” said Hamilton, who will go to Vicksburg, Mississippi, to help build a house through Habitat for Humanity.

EMU students also will be restoring trails at Blowing Rocks Park in Hobe Sound, Florida; helping elementary children at the School for the Deaf and Blind at Spartansburg, South Carolina; working at a day-care and providing counseling at a substance abuse center for women in Philadelphia; working at a boys’ and girls’ club in St. Louis; teaching elementary school in New Orleans; helping out at the United Cerebral Palsy organization in Nashville; and working with HIV/AIDS patients at The Living Center in Boston.

Hamilton, who is one of the coordinators of this year’s ASB, said finding sites isn’t difficult. However, officials at some sites don’t understand that the students aren’t coming to have fun after the work is complete, she said.

“ This program lets people know that there are college students trying to make a difference,” said Hamilton.