Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 11, 1994 TAG: 9403110131
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: OUT-OF-STATE STUDENTS ARE SPENDING THEIR SPRING BREAK LENDING A LENGTH: Medium
"Angels," one woman called them.
They were students from Emory University in Atlanta who had traded sunning on Southern beaches for a week in Roanoke's Lansdowne Park public housing development.
For them, spring break would never be the same.
"Nobody will understand the things I've seen - the actions and feelings," said Alison Stuart, a senior from Westboro, Mass. "I can try to explain it but nobody's going to really understand."
No one perhaps, except the residents of Lansdowne.
The students' weeklong stay - spent living with Lansdowne families and assisting with community projects - gave a huge boost to a segment of Roanoke's citizenry that Jamie Booker says are often treated as "sub-people."
That the students would spend their spring break performing community work in a public housing development eight hours away "shows that people have a little faith in us," said Booker, president of the Lansdowne Park Resident Council.
She only wishes the same faith would come from folks at home.
Lansdowne has changed, Booker says. Residents worked for two years to drive out the drugs. The bad element left with them, she says.
"Kids can play outside," said Angeline Baylor, a Lansdowne resident. "You can sit outside. And it's because we don't have drugs no more."
Lansdowne's resident council has received a $40,000 resident management technical assistance grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The grant is being used to fund start-up activities to prepare residents for resident management and business development.
The students helped residents complete grant-funded activities. They also planted grass seed in muddy front yards and built concession stands for Lansdowne's fund-raisers. They helped children with homework and surveyed residents about their needs, part of a five-year project initiated by public housing residents. They treated the children to a couple hours of weeknight roller skating.
And they talked.
"The kids ask why we decided to go to college, what we do there," Stuart said. "And we encourage them to see options."
The students wanted to focus on Lansdowne's youth, Booker said. "They have been a great influence on our young people. They've given the kids a little hope for something. The main question they ask the students is: `Are you coming back?' "
The student group is demographically representative of Emory's student body. While mostly white, it includes three black students and one Asian. All are from states up and down the East Coast.
The private university is tucked in an upper-middle-class corner of Atlanta - somewhat isolated, a place where "people walk their dogs with a Pooper-Scooper in hand," says Lanchi Nguyen, a sophomore from Augusta, Ga.
The only housing project many of the students have seen is Techwood, on the fringes of the Emory community. Techwood, scheduled to be converted into a "village" for the 1996 Olympics, is in poor condition, Stuart says.
Lansdowne surprised her.
"It is a lot less violent than I expected, more comfortable," Stuart said. "And people are friendly. They're grateful that we're here."
To resident Sheila Pierson, the students "have been just like family."
During down time, when students break from their volunteer work, Alison has visited with a neighbor of her host family. She was taken with how warmly the woman welcomed her into her home.
"She said that God sent me," Stuart said. "I'm not extremely religious but I felt like I was here to serve a purpose."
During one visit, Stuart mentioned to the woman that her birthday was Sunday.
"I saw her write on a piece of paper `present, wrapping paper, cake,' " she said.
by CNB