ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 12, 1997 TAG: 9704140004
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: TOM ANGLEBERGER THE ROANOKE TIMES
FREE-LANCE WRITER VIRGINIA JORDAN CONTRIBUTED INFORMATION TO THIS REPORT.
While Virginia Tech students traveled far and wide to perform community service, students from the Midwest helped out in the New River Valley.
Not all college students headed to the beaches to relax during last month's spring break.
Some Virginia Tech students volunteered to spend their vacations working in Washington, D.C., in Ivanhoe down in Smyth County, and on Indian reservations.
Meanwhile, the New River Valley benefited when almost 50 students from other areas volunteered to spend their spring breaks working here.
The Virginia Tech students were participating in Alternative Spring Break programs sponsored by the Virginia Tech YMCA.
"I just learned so much more than I ever could have going to the beach," says Andrea Robinson, who went to Washington this year and Ivanhoe last year.
Robinson and the others in her group prepared and served food in soup kitchens and operated a women's shelter for one night. They spent several nights in a large homeless shelter and learned a lot about the people who lived there, she says.
"Things that people thought about homeless people turned out to be not true," she says. When she and the other students had finished their work, they talked to some of the people they were helping. "The one-on-one [conversation], I think, was really good for a lot of people."
Kenny Burns was one of the students who chose to help at an Indian reservation.
"This is a service project," he said, "helping people, and that is really important."
He and 13 others spent the week on the Mattaponi Reservation in Eastern Virginia helping to restore a house and clean up along a road.
Other students traveled to a reservation in the Mohawk River Valley in New York, where they helped create a conference room and a new corral. Students who traveled to Ivanhoe cleaned up roads, homes and yards.
And while these area students were helping out elsewhere, students from the University of Indiana and the University of Wisconsin-OshKosh were working in Pembroke and students from the University of Virginia and the University of Pennsylvania were working in Narrows.
These volunteers are part of the Volunteers for Communities program, sponsored by the Virginia Water Project. These students actually paid $125 to volunteer for the program.
The students stayed at local churches and were fed by their hosts, church and community groups. They also had a chance to see some local attractions, including Virginia Tech.
In both areas local volunteers turned out to help the students.
During five days of work, 24 student volunteers in Pembroke moved more than 20 tons of rock along Doe Creek. Working with a stonemason, the students put the rocks into place for a stone trail and steps at the creek.
According to Town Manager Randi Lemmon, the students, six of whom were from Asia, put in hours of strenuous work each day and were also able to work on the Treasure Island Playground, clean up a wooded area and spread gravel on a walking trail.
Narrow's parks also got attention from the 23 students who volunteered to work there.
A three-quarter-mile hiking trail was built along Mill Creek and facilities were renovated at "Boom Park" on Wolf Creek, where a large section of riverbank was also cleaned.
Barb Holcomb, executive director of the Virginia Tech YMCA, says students who spend their spring break helping others get a lot in return.
"The alternative spring break trips offer a means for the students to gain an alternative education," she says. The student's sense of community is greatly expanded by the experience , she says. "I think the students gain the most from the experience."
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Narrows resident Pete McGhee helps students from UVa andby CNBUniversity of Pennylvania paint a park pavillion in Narrows. color.