Students to volunteer in New York, Virginia on Alternative Breaks spring trips
University of Maine students will travel to sites in New York and Virginia over spring break to volunteer as part of Alternative Breaks, a student-led organization that promotes community service.
This spring, Alternative Breaks will sponsor five trips, each including nine to 11 UMaine student volunteers, plus a faculty adviser.
Alternative Breaks has been organizing community service trips for UMaine students since 1998.
This year’s trips will include service work on behalf of low-income adults and abused and neglected animals, as well as natural disaster recovery relief and maintenance and trail restoration work at a state park, according to Kayley Johnson, a fourth-year psychology major at UMaine and Alternative Breaks co-coordinator.
Volunteer locations in March:
- Friends of Rockaway in Rockaway, New York, to work with a nonprofit organization to help rebuild homes after Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012;
- Natural Tunnel State Park in Duffield, Virginia, to clean trails, build picnic tables, and do general maintenance before the park opens for the 2017 season;
- Habitat for Humanity in Richmond, Virginia, to build homes for low-income adults;
- Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary in High Falls, New York, to work with abused and neglected animals; and
- Community Missions in Niagara Falls, New York, to provide hunger relief and home upkeep to low-income adults.
The 2017 Alternative Breaks trips leave March 4 and return March 11.
More information about Alternative Breaks is online.