Sherman, TX – Forty-seven Austin College students and four sponsors are currently working in a relief camp in Luling, La., March 14-19 to rebuild homes in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The trip is an Alternative Spring Break, sponsored by the Austin College Service Station.  They will join forces with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance for their work projects. 

It won’t be the first time Austin College students have volunteered to help with the recovery after hurricanes devastated parts of the Gulf Coast. Including January Term volunteers, this will be the fifth group Austin College has sent since 2005. The College’s Service Station has organized Alternative Spring Breaks since 1992, and the 2008 trip will be the third Alternative Spring Break spent in the Gulf Coast region, said Melanie Oelfke, Service Station coordinator of volunteer services.  

Oelfke said that registration for the trip was filled in two hours. “Part of the excitement students have about the Alternative Spring Break trip comes from word-of-mouth reports by students from previous years,” Oelfke said. “Austin College is flooded with students who have volunteered in other venues and are just very comfortable in this sort of activity. Volunteerism and community service seem to be a natural part of our students’ DNA.” 

In 2006, Austin College sent nearly 100 students to Louisiana to set up tents, dig drainage ditches, coordinate dining facilities, and “muck out” homes devastated by the hurricanes and flooding, Oelfke said. This time around, students will be part of the rebuilding process. Oelfke said students would be putting in sheet rock and flooring, painting, and landscaping. 

Austin College’s Service Station, run by a team of students, matches Austin College students wanting to volunteer with needs in the local community. The Service Station sponsors the College’s Great Day of Service each fall, plus Jan Serve activities, and matches individuals and student groups with community needs throughout the year. Austin College students regularly log as many as 12,000 hours of service in the local community. Add in Gulf Coast service trips and the hours of service increases to approximately 20,000.  

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance is the emergency and refugee program of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). For $20 per day, PDA provides food and lodging for each volunteer, as well as tools and materials needed for the home repairs. Most of the costs for the trip are provided through a grant awarded to the Service Station from Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas, Oelfke said. 

Austin College is a leading national independent liberal arts college located 60 miles north of Dallas in Sherman, Texas. Founded in 1849, making it the oldest institution of higher education in Texas operating under original name and charter, the college is related by covenant to the Presbyterian Church (USA). Recognized nationally for academic excellence in the areas of international education, pre-professional training, and leadership studies, Austin College is one of 40 schools profiled in Loren Pope’s influential book “Colleges that Change Lives.”