Photo courtesy Alternative Spring Break
Anna Dale stirs up some applesauce at a D.C. kitchen that feeds over 400 people a day.

by Kassi MacDonald and Kari Pile

This spring break the Leadership Program facilitated UAF’s third annual Alternative Spring Break trip. This trip took students to Washington, D.C., where we worked with the largest per capita homeless population in our nation. In conjunction with Youth Service Opportunities Project (YSOP), a non-profit organization dedicated to combating hunger and homelessness issues, we worked directly with people who are already homeless and others who are in danger of becoming homeless.

The service projects and organizations with which we worked varied from day to day. One service project led us to what was formerly a crack house and has been transformed into a home for 36 individuals who are attempting to get their lives back on track.

Milestone Place, with its long wait list and extensive interview process, provides transitional housing for individuals from the local Washington, D.C. shelters. It was evident that the benefits of living in your own apartment in this dry shelter are well worth the time and wait.

Barry, the man who runs this transitional housing complex, was absolutely amazing. The stories he told our team made a real impression on each one of us. While at Milestone Place we helped put a fresh coat of paint on the walls of rooms that new residents would be moving into at the end of the week. When the paint buckets ran dry with one room still unfinished, our students and the other four universities working with YSOP chipped in to buy Barry three more gallons of paint because he was out of both paint and money. No one wanted a new resident to have to move into a half-painted apartment at this special place.

Barry and Milestone Place weren’t the only ones to impact our students. A part of our team traveled to the residence of an elderly man named Mr. Roberts whose wife had fallen and broken her hip. In addition to her accident, the couple was at risk of being evicted from their apartment due to an extreme hording problem. Seven members of the ASB team spent a day helping Mr. Roberts clean out his apartment. After spending just under five hours at his house, the team was able to help Mr. Roberts do what would have taken him weeks to do on his own. He was very appreciative and worked as hard as our team members.

Our group members not only put their service skills to work during their days in D.C., we also took the opportunity to prepare, serve, and have dinner with homeless guests of YSOP. Students mingled with guests who were living in local shelters and others who made their homes on the streets each night. Through these interactions and after hearing some personal stories, students broke down many of the barriers between themselves and those whose circumstances have made them homeless. They also successfully overcame the stereotypes that homeless people are all lazy, drug addicts, and prefer this lifestyle.

Shortly, the Leadership Program will have more pictures and stories from ASB 2008 posted on the web at www.uaf.edu/leadership. We encourage you to visit the site!

The UAF Leadership Program organizes an Alternative Spring Break trip every year. Spring 2009 plans are in place to do an ASB trip in Alaska. A team will travel to a rural area to complete a meaningful service project. The Leadership Program also plans to facilitate the first international Alternative Summer Break next year to El Salvador. If you are interested in participating in these trips, please contact the Leadership Program at volunteer@uaf.edu or 474-1170.

Kassi MacDonald is a Leadership Program coordinator and Kari Pile is the Volunteer Program Assistant with the leadership program.