Students give spring break to Kentucky

March 24, 2004
By Jenna Stevens
Staff Writer

While many of us hit the beaches and tried to catch some rays over spring break, one group of students from St. Ambrose had another thing in mind. Instead of having fun in the sun, they had fun at school.

Thirty-five students from a variety of organizations on campus teamed up together to help out at David High School in eastern Kentucky. These students spent a week at this volunteer-run high school helping the teachers and performing maintenance on the building and grounds.

David High is a charity school for students who grow up in very poor neighborhoods in the surrounding communities. This school is a last resort for the teens to get their high school diplomas and without the patience of the volunteers, many of them would never finish.

For several years, students from St. Ambrose have been working with the school over spring break to help keep things running smoothly. Students this year were in charge of cleaning up the woods workshop and clearing away rocks from the baseball field that had been affected by flooding earlier in the season.

Many of them also had the opportunity to shadow a student for a day and find out what it is like to attend a school founded completely on free labor. Students stayed on campus in small cabins created specifically for volunteers and had the opportunity to work with other colleges and universities who were also on service trips.

“It was a great time,” student Dan Marie said.  “I learned a lot about the poverty of eastern Kentucky and we got a chance to see how the classrooms were run. It was good to see the teachers working hard to give the students a chance for a high school education.”

Overall this trip was a huge success and everyone who attended agreed that even school during spring break can be fun.

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