Most students spend their spring break catching up on schoolwork or hanging out with their friends back at home. However, United Campus Ministry (UCM) had something else planned for their break. UCM at Shippensburg University spends their spring break each year in Louisiana helping the community and taking part in different volunteer work.

Rev. Jan Bye, United Campus Minister, has been part of UCM since she started at SU 22 years ago. UCM has been going down to Louisiana every spring break since then.

Each year, the group chooses the types of community projects students will be doing. In past years, UCM has volunteered for low income senior citizen organizations. They also volunteer at a place called Sager-Brown, which offers many options for students to do community projects. This year, one of UCM’s main projects was starting to paint a mural for a domestic violence shelter in one of the visiting rooms there.

“Louisiana is culturally a different part of the United States, and experiencing it and eating different foods are what the students really like,” Bye said.

Bye also said that interacting with other volunteers and the community is definitely another factor that students enjoy about the trip.

The best project that UCM took part in this year was when they built a ramp for a woman in a wheelchair because she could not get in and out of her trailer. Bye said it was the “most impactful” project of the trip.

Another memorable experience that UCM had in Louisiana was when they had to fix the floor of an older woman’s trailer. Every day, her two grandsons who worked the night shift would help them during the day and then go right to work when they were done for the day. Bye said that she could tell how appreciative they were for UCM and their help.

John Cox, a junior at SU, has been a part of UCM since fall 2010 and has been on the Louisiana trip for five years now.

“Hanging out with friends and doing God’s work by helping those who are in need of help is what I enjoy most about the trip,” Cox said.

Cox also mentioned that his favorite project to do for the community is painting people’s houses and different buildings for them because he gets to work along with friends during the renovations and people get to use the buildings later on.

Austin Wisser, also a junior at SU and the secretary of UCM, has taken the Louisiana trip for a second year now. Wisser mentioned that his favorite project he volunteered in was painting the mural in the Youth Visitation Center for Domestic Violence. The mural was an “under the sea” theme.

“I like doing artwork, but I have very little time during the school year to do any. This allowed me to use my skills to paint a wall so that other people could enjoy what I like doing,” Wisser said.

Whether it is fixing houses or painting walls, there is no limit of what the volunteers of UCM can do.

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