Most college students see Spring Break as a rite of passage, a time to party before closing out the school year’s second semester. That’s not the case for the 45 students who’ve come to the Coastal Bend from out-of-state to help repair Hurricane Harvey-damaged homes.
“They’re awesome,” Samaritan’s Purse Volunteer Coordinator Melanie Brady said. “It’s just super cool to have college students here, not out partying or whatever college students do on Spring Break.”
Samaritan’s Purse is the non-profit organization that’s helping to organize the student volunteers. They’ll come in three waves over the next three weeks representing colleges across the country. This week’s batch includes students from Michigan State University, Grand Valley State University (Michigan), and Biola University (California).
“It’s my last Spring Break ever, so I wanted to do something that made an impact,” Biola graduating, second year senior Angeline Nan said.
“We’ve all heard about Harvey, but we’ve never got to see the damage,” Grand Valley State freshman Olivia Lindeboom said. “It was really interesting, and I love helping people out.”
The student-volunteers are working on five projects in or around Aransas County right now. Brady thinks their dedication to serving others, not partying, is admirable.
“I did not go volunteer when I was in college… not on Spring Break anyway,” Brady said.
