by Amy Gassen
sports editor
Spring break is right around the corner. The semester build-up of stress will have the opportunity to be released as both students and faculty members take a week-long vacation from the habitual hustle and bustle of the school day.
Cancun, Palm Springs and Jamaica are among the top choice areas on where to spend spring vacation.
But, during this spring break, 38 Cabrini students will get a different perspective to vacation-working hard labor. Embarking on a six-to-eight hour van ride, Mary Laver and John DiMucci, campus ministers, will travel with students to the destinations of Union, W.Va., and of East Bank, W.Va., respectively.
“It’s very community-oriented,” Kristen Scarborough, senior, said. Scarborough has been going to Union for the past three years. “I just feel like I can breathe again when I am down there.”
Moving piles of wood, creating a ditch, putting up a roof and painting are among the tasks that students have performed throughout the years in Union, according to Scarborough.
This spring will mark the 22nd year that members of the Cabrini community have traveled to W.Va. with campus ministry on Project Appalachia.
Repairing porches, putting up siding, insulating buildings and restoring old homes are a few of the jobs that the crew that travels to East Bank has performed in the past, according to Colleen Martin, senior. Martin has traveled on the trip for the past four years.
“You feel like you can do anything after you put on a roof in four days,” Martin said.
Union has been hosting students since the service trip was initiated 22 years ago. According to Laver, t13 students will travel to Union and stay in St. Andrews Church.
Due to the fact that the trip demanded more spots than were available, a second site in East Bank was created six years ago.
“In both cases, we work through Catholic groups,” Laver said. Those students who volunteer at Union will work through the Catholic Social Services of West Virginia.
“We will be working with Right from the Start, a group that works with families that have unexpected and difficult pregnancies that need help getting their households ready,” Laver said. This is the first year that Union will benefit from this organization.
Marge Booth, a Presbyterian volunteer, is the site supervisor for East Bank.
“When we go down, (Booth) will take us to a few different places to show us what needs to be done,” Martin said.
At both sites, the students split up and work at four to five places a day. According to Martin, volunteers could work on a project from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m.
Colin McGinley, junior, has travled to both Union and East Bank during different trips. “You get more out of it than the
