The Wake

Spring break in today’s culture can mostly be summed up by MTV, where (on its “Essential Spring Break Guide”) the mega-channel geared towards college students touts Cancun, a popular spring break destination, as “rightfully known as a netherworld of debauched frat dudes and raunchy girls where you may drunkenly sign a release and then everyone and your parents can see you on the latest ‘Girls Gone Wild’ commercial.” For some students, though, spring break can be anything but your typical vacation.

For students involved with the University of Minnesota chapter of Habitat for Humanity, this third week in March is all about giving others a break and having fun with hammers and saws.

“You’ll never forget the week you’ll spend building a house for someone else,” says Sally Holzapfel, one of the chapter’s collegiate challenge coordinators. The chapter, according to Holzapfel, is one of the largest and most active student groups on campus. In addition to taking winter and spring break house-building trips with other volunteers from Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) chapters across the nation, the U’s chapter also is building a house in the Heritage Park neighborhood of Minneapolis.

This spring break, Holzapfel, a second-year architecture student, is coordinating three separate trips to build homes for those in need in Oakland, Calif., Surprise, Ariz., and Albany, Ga. The cost of the trip is $350, which includes meals, housing, and transportation, but Holzapfel stresses that there are opportunities to raise the money for the trip through fundraising. HFHI supplies the tools required as well as any other resources the group might need at the housing site. Area churches and community centers provide food and housing for the students.

According to its Web site, HFHI is a nonprofit, nondenominational Christian housing organization that is dedicated to “eliminating poverty housing and homelessness from the world and to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action.” HFHI invites “people of all backgrounds, races, and religions to build houses in partnership with families in need,” regardless of the family’s background, race or religion. “Habitat Houses are sold to partner families at no profit, financed with affordable, no-interest loans” and it is expected that the homeowners also invest hundreds of hours of their own labor into building their Habitat house and the houses of others, according to the HFHI website.

Holzapfel has been involved with HFHI for over a year. Since she has joined HFHI, she has helped build homes in Valdosta, Ga., and Tutwiler, Miss. She says that a typical day begins at 8 a.m. and ends at 4 p.m., with jobs that include supporting walls for others and putting in windows. “The coolest thing was that Claire [another campus coordinator] and I sided a whole side of a house,” Holzapfel enthusiastically says of her trip to Valdosta.

In Tutwiler, “one of the poorest areas of the nation,” according to Holzapfel, the rampant poverty and living conditions were “pretty intense and unbelievable.” It was because of her experience with HFHI and her trip to Tutwiler that she realized how poverty is not simply a problem plaguing third-world countries. “It really opened my eyes that people need help right here, in the U.S.,” Holzapfel says.

After they finished their work for the day, Holzapfel and the other student volunteers played football with the children of Tutwiler. “I still write letters to a 12-year-old girl there,” Holzapfel says, adding that she sends paper and erasers to her pen-pal, a “luxury” that the children of Tutwiler do not have. “I realized that I could use my time, money and effort helping somebody else,” Holzapfel says.

Krista Spinti, a second-year graphic design student, will be one of the volunteers heading to Surprise, Ariz., for spring break. Spinti says that while helping others is a great experience, the social aspect of the program can be just as engaging. “Everyone I’ve talked to has had a great experience,” Spinti says, adding that, on her previous trip to California, “I got to know everyone so well; we had so much fun.”

Sure, they may not be featured on MTV’s next spring break special, but these students find that their Spring Break For Humanity is fulfilling nonetheless.