While some college students will spend the upcoming Spring Break sunning on the shores of some exotic locale or skiing down mountain slopes, other students choose to spend their weeklong break serving the community.
Last year, one of those students at The University of Memphis, was Staci Parram, sophomore biology major.
Parram, through a university program called Alternative Spring Break, spent her vacation last year in Bay St. Louis and Waveland, Miss., two areas affected by Hurricane Katrina.
The program, in its sixth year, takes university students to volunteer in different areas of the country during Spring Break.
"We look for someone who is really seriously committed to community service," said Teanca Shepherd, the assistant coordinator of ASB.
Justin Cockerham, junior music major, said he would participate in a similar program.
"I think it's my obligation to serve people and it's a great opportunity," he said. "I think we are called to serve."
Sharenda Jones, a freshman nursing major also said she would consider participating in the program.
"I feel that is a great thing for people to give up their Spring Break for the greater good," she said.
Parram said that most of the people who participated in the program were "people you see all the time in the Student Activities Council or the Student Government Association."
Though some of the students had participated in the program before, Parram said she had never done anything like it.
"I didn't have anything else to do," Parram said. "I saw the ad in The Daily Helmsman and was like, 'Let's do it.'"
After the $75 fee, an application and an interview, she was chosen as one of the 18 students to go on the trip.
Then came the items she was asked to bring by the two advisors who also went.
"They told us we had to bring bug spray, hard bottom shoes, pillows, blankets, clothes and snacks," Parram said. "We had to get a tetanus shot, in case you stepped on rusty nail."
They journeyed on their nearly weeklong trip in two 18-passenger vans.
The students lived in a plastic tent with metal poles and wooden beds. It also had running water, electricity and bathrooms.
They were responsible for chores such as mopping bathroom floors and washing dishes.
She said there was a huge tent where the students slept (the girls had two rooms, the guys had one room) and another for the kitchen area.
"We lived outside yet inside," Parram said.
A familiar area for the students was a room containing four computers for them to use.
"I got on Facebook and looked over and everyone else was on Facebook too," she said.
On the first day in Mississippi, Parram said they picked up a woman's belongings whose house had moved a mile.
"We picked up her stuff, we picked up her grandchildren's toys," Parram said. "These were her personal items."
She also found out why she needed to bring insect-repellant.
"The bugs were getting on our nerves, but we were sensitive to the woman," she said. "I had mosquito bites from my head to my feet. I wanted to cover myself in a plastic bag."
On the second day, the group helped a man who had hurricane insurance, but no flood insurance. His house was considered flood damaged.
"I felt so bad for him," Parram said.
The man cooked the group red beans and rice. Several houses where Parram helped clean fed the helpers.
In another house, a man was left with only a foundation and various debris left from his home and some that had been swept in by the water.
"We had a crabfest," she said. "He cooked crabs and laid them out on the table."
Parram said that the damage was horrible, and the cities were very disorganized.
"All the streets and stop signs were down, so they had makeshift street signs," she said. "You had to stop for bulldozers going down the street."
The resident of the first house the students worked on told them the Hurricane Katrina was much worse than an earlier major hurricane, Hurricane Wilma.
"She said 'Wilma was a lady, but Katrina was a b----,'" Parram said.
When she and other students complained, especially about the mosquito problem, Parram said one of their advisors reminded them that they actually had a home to go back to.
One of the problems that Parram had was with the quiet hours, in effect from 12 a.m. until 12 p.m.
"Every time one of us would talk or laugh then, we would hear a scream that quiet hours were in effect," Parram said.
She speculated that the rule might have been in place because of the number of other students who were living and working nearby.
After the experience, Parram said that she would consider helping hurricane victims and working in the ASB program again, though she will not be this year.
Some advice she would give to students who want to do something similar is:
"Don't wear new tennis shoes if you go," and "put other people before you. Before you complain, think about what they went through. Be compassionate. Be generous. If you are selfish, all you will do is complain."
This year, Shepherd said the program will be taking a group of students to Kiln, Miss., to do hurricane disaster relief, mentor children, build houses, make renovations and work in and clean up parks.
"I feel like it will make those students become 'community service citizens,' that they don't stop in college but continue to do so," she said.
