I had the honor of going on the Alternative Spring Break trip to New York City this year. We worked with the Medici Project, which has a vision of giving opportunities to as many as possible, helping them cultivate a heart of service, make sense of individual purpose and turn what they love into what they do. Our trip allowed us to work with Medici’s Director of Organizational Development and University Relations, P.J. Simmons, who brought us around the city to work with the Variety Boys and Girls Club, Meals on Wheels, World Vision, the Covenant House and Urban Garden.
Our trip allowed us to experience many different types of service, which included working with city’s youth, packaging different school supplies for teachers and non-profits who could not buy their own, delivering food to the elderly and lastly each of the 14 of us were able to receive a different thought process on life.
On our trip, we were able to interact with employees, volunteers and the people who were directly receiving help from these organizations while we traveled around New York from Queens, to Brooklyn, to the Bronx, even to the heart of the city in Times Square.
Contributed Photos/ Julianne Bentley: Alternative Spring Break participants say service trips give students the opportunity to make a difference in the community.
While in the city, our group, including our two leaders, Meredith Trabilsy and Julianne Bentley, stayed at the New York School of Urban Ministry. Our team consisted of a diverse group of students with different majors as well as backgrounds of our level of involvement of past service opportunities. On this trip, we were all able to personally benefit as individuals and really think about life in someone else’s shoes. For example, while working with the children at the Variety Boys and Girls Club, many team members were made aware of the current situation for much of New York’s youth.
We went into the week thinking that we would be helping the children, but in actuality we ended the week with them helping and changing our lives. In addition, during our service work, we were able to take part in changing the lives in a different way than other trips were able to experience. We were not building or doing environmental work, but instead we were able to work one-on-one with the city’s residents in the afternoon, while in the morning we directly worked with the organizations which worked toward supporting them.
Our team was able to make a large difference in the community. We were able to participate in many different kinds of service and really see what we were doing. Specifically, while on the trip we received comments from different individuals who we worked with, such as an elderly man we met while delivering Meals on Wheels. He told us that he “loved us” for bringing him his meal. We also received a similar statement while working at the Covenant House, a youth homeless shelter where we helped organize the clothing warehouse which provided teens and young adults formal attire for interviews. A young man who came into the warehouse while we were working told us that we made him “feel loved.”
Personally, I met a young boy at the Variety Boys and Girls Club, where we spent each afternoon of the trip, who I grew close to and was able to put my life into an entirely new perspective. This entire trip allowed me and my fellow teammates to help others while also growing so much ourselves. The connections we were able to make in just a week’s time with the organizations we worked with and with our team were remarkable.
We feel like every individual should take advantage of this program and be a part of an alternative break trip, whether it is a weekend, spring break, or winter break. This trip was one of the best opportunities of our lives. Being a part of it was one of the best decisions that we made. We will never forget the memories, the laughs and, most importantly, the impact that we made during this week of service.
Skylar Beddie can be contacted at sbeddie@ksc.keene.edu