The lovely ladies of Alpha Sigma Gamma just returned to Kirksville from spring break! While some people were catching up on sleep or homework or their favorite TV shows, these ASG’s were doing service all over the country!

“This past weekend (and for a few months now actually) I’ve been working with my parish back home (12 adults total) to put on a retreat for about 90 eighth graders and 120 high school students! It was a TON of work but an absolute blast, and most definitely a great service opportunity! I’m still feeling the loss of feeling in my feet, my voice, and mostly my sleep but it was all totally worth it!”

~Emily Jacob

“I went to a ‘Tibet Uprising Day’ rally in Kansas City this break to get people’s attention on the harsh treatment going on to people in Tibet and the Tibetan community.”

~Dechen Sherpa

“I helped out at a trivia night that benefited a local church over break. I helped set up, run it and tear down afterwards.”

~Anna Smith

“Over spring break a friend of mine organized a mini service trip in downtown St. Louis [with the North Grand Neighborhood Services]…When I was there we trimmed and painted several rooms of a house and handed out fliers. It was incredible to see how so much volunteer help has begun to turn this area around. Right now they’re still only working with a small area, the new houses in the middle of a run-down neighborhood offer a glimmer of hope for the city of St. Louis. Slowly but surely these projects are offering a safer place for families to raise their children and helping local teens graduate high school. I think it’s a really cool organization, and it was so eye-opening to work with them.”

~Amanda Schwent

“I spent spring break in Memphis, TN on a service trip. Not only did we serve a poor community, but we lived in one. We were in a bad part of town, in a run down building that wasn’t even up to fire code, and had cold showers all week. In one hour, we served about 150 homeless people from a soup kitchen, and the people were so thankful and full of smiles. We painted an elderly woman’s house, tilled a garden, used power tools to cut down basketball poles and see-saws, mulched a horse trail through the woods, and played with a family of 9 children. A little bit of hard work, a ton of smiles, and a lot of helping hands really went a long way for those people in Memphis this spring break!”

~Teresa Boschert

“I went on a service trip with the Catholic Newman Center over break to Memphis, TN.  We delivered meals on wheels to senior citizens who are in need of a hot meal each day. We delivered meals to about 45 homes for the first two days. We also helped…[with a] handyman program, which assists senior citizens with housework, big or small. With this program, we were able to repair a wheelchair ramp going up to the senior’s front door, and also painted the outside of a woman’s house and prepped for some more complex home repair. 

We also sent a group of 5 students to St. Mary’s soup kitchen every morning to help prepare and serve food to the hungry and/or homeless in Memphis. This was probably the most rewarding experience just through talking to the man who started the soup kitchen. His story is powerful and seeing how passionate he is about the soup kitchen was really moving for a lot of us students. We got to help hand out the food which was a really awesome experience. 

We helped with an organization called Habitat for Hope, which assists family’s from out of town who have terminally ill family children and are in need of a place to stay.  Lastly, we helped out at the church that housed us for the week. So we spent one day doing outdoor landscaping and yard-work, as well as making bulletin boards, caulking doorways, painting, and other odd jobs. 

Overall, it was a super fun week! I loved the variety of ways we were able to touch people’s lives, and I was surprised to find how easily they touched mine.”

~Stacy Rademacher