2008 Woodie Awards
Jaspers Opt for Service in West Virginia During Spring Break
Katie Meyer and Liz Harris
Issue date: 4/6/05 Section: Features
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Manhattan College is an institution that esteems itself on its high academic standards and avid participation in community service through organizations such as the Campus Ministry and Lasallian Collegians. These organizations provide students with opportunities to develop and enhance their spirituality by reflecting upon socioeconomic issues that surround society. Every year the Campus Ministry plans a service trip during Spring Break to build houses for those less fortunate. This year twenty-two Jaspers put away their bathing suits and tanning oil and headed to Beards Fork, West Virginia to work with the Southern Appalachian Labor School.
The Southern Appalachian Labor School, SALS, is a non-profit organization funded solely by grants and donations. It has two goals in mind. First, it works to rehabilitate or build homes for residents who cannot afford to do so themselves. Secondly, it hires workers ranging from seventeen to twenty-four who might have graduated high school or are looking to get their GED. SALS hopes that by hiring them they will be trained and taught to be functioning members of society, and they can get stable jobs after working with SALS. However, since SALS is an organization with no government funding and depends on private donations and grants, they can only pay their workers stipend wages and depend upon global volunteers such as Manhattan College for their generosity.
During Manhattan College's stay at SALS they learned much more than how to use a hammer and a power saw, they began to understand, experience, and embrace a different way of life-a different culture. Many people are quick to stereotype life down in West Virginia and claim it is full of hicks or hillbillies. However, what the MC volunteers saw were a group of kids who were not all that different, but just in a place that had different values and ways of life.
The students lived at the South Appalachian Labor School during the trip. They arrived on Saturday 12 March and attended an orientation explaining the project's goals and expectations. Sunday was spent grocery shopping, settling in, exploring Beard's Fork, and hiking up a mountain.
The Southern Appalachian Labor School, SALS, is a non-profit organization funded solely by grants and donations. It has two goals in mind. First, it works to rehabilitate or build homes for residents who cannot afford to do so themselves. Secondly, it hires workers ranging from seventeen to twenty-four who might have graduated high school or are looking to get their GED. SALS hopes that by hiring them they will be trained and taught to be functioning members of society, and they can get stable jobs after working with SALS. However, since SALS is an organization with no government funding and depends on private donations and grants, they can only pay their workers stipend wages and depend upon global volunteers such as Manhattan College for their generosity.
During Manhattan College's stay at SALS they learned much more than how to use a hammer and a power saw, they began to understand, experience, and embrace a different way of life-a different culture. Many people are quick to stereotype life down in West Virginia and claim it is full of hicks or hillbillies. However, what the MC volunteers saw were a group of kids who were not all that different, but just in a place that had different values and ways of life.
The students lived at the South Appalachian Labor School during the trip. They arrived on Saturday 12 March and attended an orientation explaining the project's goals and expectations. Sunday was spent grocery shopping, settling in, exploring Beard's Fork, and hiking up a mountain.