Aleese Kopf, right, a Kansas University freshman and Free State High School graduate, worked to rebuild a home last week in Lakeshore, Miss. Kopf and 48 other KU students gave up their spring break time to travel across the country to do service projects through Alternative Breaks.

For some students, spring break is no easy, breezy day at the beach.

These days, area universities, colleges and even high schools offer students opportunities to volunteer their time in addition to traveling across the country or even out of the country.

“One thing we try to do is set a standard and a passion for them to serve throughout their lives,” said Ben Berning, a Kansas University junior from Shawnee who is co-director for Alternative Breaks.

Alternative Breaks at KU started in 1995, and spring break is a busy time for the service program. Last week, 49 KU students spent time at sites working across the country in Florida, Illinois, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Washington, D.C. At KU, students pay $250 for travel expenses, and they attend a Special Projects in the Community Course before their trip to earn one course credit.

Co-director Ashley Bloom, a Hutchinson senior, said she talked to a student who volunteered for group fighting homelessness in Washington, D.C.

“She said her experience was life-changing,” Bloom said.

About a dozen Bishop Seabury students also gave up three days of their break this week to help social service organizations around Lawrence. The students have spent their days at the Salvation Army, Lawrence Community Shelter and Lawrence Interdenominational Nutrition Kitchen.

At night, they’ve also camped outside the school, 4120 Clinton Parkway.

“It makes you more empathetic, and I think it really broadens your experiences,” said Julia Davidson, a Seabury junior.

Help for the South

Two Free State High School graduates and current KU students worked last week with blind children and helped rebuild homes that Hurricane Katrina destroyed.

“I decided instead of sitting here partying or doing what normal college students do, I would do something different,” said Aleese Kopf, a KU freshman from Lawrence.

Kopf helped rebuild homes for a school teacher and an elderly man through Rebuild Lakeshore in Lakeshore, Miss. And Elise Rock, a KU sophomore from Lawrence, spent break driving to Spartanburg, S.C., with six other students to work at the South Carolina School for the Deaf and the Blind.

“I’ve never been in that kind of environment. It was a learning experience,” she said.

A group of 17 Baker University students, alumni and faculty headed to Baldwin County, Ala., where they helped clean up Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge, heavily damaged by Hurricanes Ivan and Katrina in 2004 and 2005.

The Rev. Ira DeSpain, campus minister at Baker University, and his wife, Barbara, sponsored the trip, which is in its 15th year.

“The trip is a way for students to have fun and contribute to society in some way,” DeSpain said. “It gives different impressions to people about how students spend their vacations.”

Brad Page, a Baker senior from Paola, said the trip – his second – was fun and productive.

“I liked being able to help while getting to be on a beach enjoying the warm weather at the same time,” Page said. “I’ve done all the partying before. This was much more rewarding.”

Across the ocean

As a member of the Oceans of Mercy mission trip to South Africa last week, Brigitte Clark knows the experience will impact the rest of her life.

“The trip was pretty much life-changing,” said Clark, a junior at Mill Valley High School in Shawnee.

It was the third year Oceans of Mercy has taken students on a spring break trip to South Africa. A total of 32 Shawnee-area residents returned Monday morning from the 12-day trip.

Oceans of Mercy – founded by Shawnee resident Schaun Colin – helps children affected by the HIV/AIDS virus in South Africa. The trip’s main focus was a camp for 96 orphans in Jeffrey’s Bay, South Africa.

One day, the team visited the homes of people living with HIV/AIDS. The group helped at an orphanage and worked in soup kitchens for orphans, all of which Oceans of Mercy helps support.

“I believe it was a consensus that the group received so much more than we gave,” said Traci Johnson, Shawnee, Oceans of Mercy volunteer.

Going green

For Megan Holton, a Kansas State University sophomore, it was a green spring break.

On March 16, Holton, a 2006 Tonganoxie High School graduate, traveled to Greensburg to help rebuild 86-year-old Elma Helwig’s home.

Helwig lost her home last May, when an EF5 tornado destroyed more than 90 percent of the town. Since the disaster, city officials have decided to stay as environmentally friendly as possible during reconstruction.

“When you go there and see the town, everything is cleaned up, but there is still a bunch of empty lots with little bits and scraps here and there,” Holton said. “It’s pretty much empty.”

Holton, along with six students from the university’s Ecumenical Christian Ministries and four from the K-State Office of Civic Leadership, rebuilt sections of the house.

Holton said when they arrived at Helwig’s house it was merely four walls, but by the time they left, it was starting to resemble a home – a home that could withstand 200 mph winds.