Volunteering

[kidcolin]

Diablo,

I'm in the same boat. I used to be pretty involved back in college, but for the past three years have barely done anything.

Habitat is on obvious one. Very enjoyable. I did it as part of a spring break trip and had an awesome time. We had the benefit of starting at the very beginning... installing floor boards, and then putting up the whole frame. Very gratifying.

Oh yeah.. and we did it in Jackson, MS. Not really your typical spring break destination.. but it was very eye opening for me. I had never spent any real time in the deep south. Quite the experience. For all you college kids out there, a lot of schools have some sort of spring break volunteering program. Whether it's just a trip or two on some Habitat outing, or working with a bunch of different projects.

Though I did a variety of projects, the Alternative Spring Break program was my main focus. I worked as a coordinator one year (jointly in charge of a specific trip), and the following year was a Program Manager, responsible for organizing all 11 trips. The program was VERY popular at my school. We had to turn students away every year. Projects varied from Habitat, to nature preserves (with camping!), to building wheelchair ramps in Nashville, food shelters in ATL, and some other stuff I'm forgetting.

These trips were a great way of incorporating El D's 3 reasons for volunteering: you're helping out, you meet cool peopole, and have a blast. Trip destinations weren't just selected based on the work, bute also based on how enjoyable they might be (since you'll be there a week). I mean, sometimes nature restoration projects aren't all THAT helpful, and even sometimes of dubious need at best. But you all end up having a blast, and some of the students are going to return home with a newfound love for volunteering, so that's cool.

This sort of program is pretty easy to get started as well. Our entire budget for all 11 trips (vans, gas, tents, food, supplies, etc) were paid for by $200 per volunteer, and a few generous supplies donations. And we had room to spare. PM me if you want any other details.