Appalachia Spring Break Trip
At Augustana, when the worship ends, the service begins. Every year Campus Ministries sponsors a Spring Break service trip in which students have the opportunity to do volunteer projects helping communities around the nation.
Past trips include service projects in Mississippi dedicated to the effort of rebuilding the Gulf Coast after the devastation left by the hurricane season of 2005. Since Spring Break 2009, Augustana has been taking students to the Henderson Settlement located in Frakes, KY, in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains.
Extreme poverty has taken root in this area of Kentucky and Tennessee, so Augie students and parents stay at Henderson Settlement for the week while working on a variety of projects in, on, and around many homes.
Not only are students helping better the living situations for families in the area, but the kindness experienced from the homeowners and surrounding members of the community is what students take back the most from the trip.
These students are likely not to forget what they saw there and certainly considered it to be a transforming experience. Even from more than 600 miles away, Augie students are affecting other lives and are in turn being affected for the better as well.
Video slide shows of past trips: