“Last week, 58 University of Akron students spent their Spring Break minutes from sandy beaches and the Atlantic Ocean. Most of them didn’t touch the water. In collaboration with AmeriCorps, UA sponsored an Alternative Spring Break trip to Pass Christian, Miss.”
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Last week, 58 University of Akron students spent their Spring Break minutes from sandy beaches and the Atlantic Ocean.

Most of them didn’t touch the water.

In collaboration with AmeriCorps, UA sponsored an Alternative Spring Break trip to Pass Christian, Miss., for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

Ryan Piotrowski was one of several students making the trip for the second time. As the chief crew leader, Piotrowski worked to coordinate jobs for Akron’s volunteers.

Our main efforts were to do whatever was needed at any given time, he said. The majority of the work dealt with trash and debris pickup. There are not many people in the public realm with time to do that type of work, but it is needed.

During the week, students hung drywall, cut grass for elderly people and painted interior walls.

On the first day, we worked as a whole group and focused on cleaning up a few streets, Piotrowski said. We filled an entire dumpster.

Piotrowski tried to explain how much the condition of the city had improved since last year.

The biggest change I noticed was there was a lot more new construction, he said. That was a great sign. People are starting to rebuild. Also, last year most of the buildings were still marked with the symbols that they had been searched. There were less of those this time.

Last year, student volunteers worked to clean up a park in the city center near the ocean. All of the returning volunteers were delighted to see the park completely restored. Since the original trip, other volunteers have rebuilt a gazebo and installed an entire playground.

We spent many nights just hanging out in the gazebo, listening to the ocean and unwinding, Piotrowski said. It was great to see something like that restored for the community.

Still, most of the students’ favorite part of the trip was the interaction they had with local residents, Piotrowski said.

That was the best part of everything, he said. People made meals and a cake for us. On Cedar Street, people would stop and yell ‘thank you’ out the windows. By midday, more than 50 people had called the mayor’s office with thank you calls for us.

People were just so thankful to see our smiles.

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