Nine students from the University of Southern Mississippi are spending their spring break in Lawrence, helping the city’s homeless.

“We’re here to perform random acts of service,” said Emily Keys, who’s from Columbia, Miss.

About half the students spent Monday and Tuesday afternoons at the Leo Center, 1 Riverfront Plaza; the others were at the Lawrence Community Shelter, 214 W. 10th St.

“They really cleaned the place up,” said Joel Pollock, operations manager at the shelter.

“We keep it clean,” he said, “but they came and did the stuff that tends to get away from you, like cleaning the light fixtures and the air vents. They scrubbed the floors and the walls.

“They got the mildew out of the shower,” Pollock said, “which, when you have 21 people taking showers every night, is a constant battle.”

Two students spent much of Tuesday afternoon at a local laundry, washing and drying the shelter’s pillows.

“We have to do that every six months,” Pollock said.

The students, all members of the Baptist Student Union at USM, said their mission was twofold:

University of Southern Mississippi students Stephen McDonald, sophomore, left, and junior Tyler Moore load pillows into a sack to be delivered to the Lawrence Community Shelter after washing them Tuesday afternoon at the Payless Laundromat at Ninth and Mississippi streets. Nine students from the university are spending their spring break in Lawrence, helping the city's homeless.

¢ Help those who helped Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina;

¢ Help their friends Matt and Stephanie Christenot start a church in east Lawrence.

The Christenots moved to Kansas in 2003, shortly after graduating from USM. They moved from Topeka to Lawrence in November.

“Our target group is young people – ages 18 to 30 – who live in east Lawrence,” Christenot said.

Christenot does not yet have a meeting place for the congregation. Instead, he refers interested people to its Web site, www.renaissancelawrence.com.

“They’re shooting for people who aren’t going to church because it’s too traditional,” said Jenny Harrington, Baptist Student Union’s adult sponsor.

The students return to Mississippi on Friday.

They plan to hand out free bottles of water today on Massachusetts Street.

The university is in Hattiesburg, which is 60 miles from the Gulf Coast.

“Just about everybody there was affected by Hurricane Katrina,” Keys said while folding laundry at the community shelter. “It feels good to get away and help someone else.”