IU student group spends spring break in New Orleans

Senior Kate Ebert said this spring break will be unlike any other.\nEbert will be spending spring break in an area where residents sometimes wear face masks and use portable toilets and showers. IU's Campus Crusade for Christ group has organized for more than 120 IU students to go on trips to Louisiana and Mississippi. According to the group's Web site, students' destinations -- New Orleans and Pass Christian, Miss. -- are places where, "once it gets dark, there is nothing to do." Post-hurricane New Orleans, however, is proving to be a common spring break destination for students this month.\nStudents might find themselves doing manual labor, distributing food and supplies to other workers and ministering to a variety of different types of people. Ebert said she realizes this trip will not be like her usual Florida spring break, but said she is excited.\n"It's been really fun and been relaxing on the beach and stuff, but I wanted to give this spring break to other people to help out with their needs and not have a selfish spring break anymore," Ebert said. "It's time to give back."\nShe said a big part of helping will be the physical labor, but that students will also provide support for hurricane victims. Campus Crusade will also be working to give spiritual support to people who want it. \nEbert said as long as she helps one person, she'll feel like she's making a difference. She said she expects to grow personally while experiencing the devastation from Katrina and is sure it will make her more thankful for what she has.\nJunior Adam Buehler decided to join the Crusade trip after his involvement in ROTC prevented his participation in the Army National Guard hurricane relief. Buehler said he wanted to go to New Orleans in uniform and do things like hand out Meals Ready to Eat, but the group trip is cheap and since he couldn't go with the Army, he said it was the next best choice and probably a better option anyway. \nHe said he wants to show the victims that people care about them and want to get involved in the rebuilding process. He said that he thinks it will provide a good opportunity to show that college students care about more than themselves.\n"We're bombarded with the images of the disaster, but I think it's impossible to catch the whole picture," Buehler said. "We have no idea what those people went through on a human level. We see them stranded in the Superdome, but their lives were being blown away."\nSarah Bolling, a sophomore at IU East in Richmond, Ind., found a different way to New Orleans. After recently transferring to IU East, Bolling joined a small Habitat for Humanity group that will be spending its spring break in Louisiana.\n"I could've gone to New York, but somebody's got to do (the work) and I like doing it," Bolling said.\nShe said she hopes to make friends while working with Habitat. The group will be clearing mud and debris to make space for rebuilding in the future.\nAccording to the Campus Crusade Web site, the group has been sending teams since November and in March, it hopes to have more than 500 students each week during spring break. IU students make up more than 120 students for next week's trip. Campus Crusade will also have a project this summer for any students who want to serve all summer long.\nTo participate, visit www.campuscrusadeforchrist.com/.