Alternative Spring Breaks provide helping hands

By: Danny Weber
Contributing Writer

When you hear the word “poverty,” you may think of places like India, Africa or the states recently devastated by Hurricane Katrina. More often then not, the thought probably seems far from home, but there are many areas like these which are closer than most people think. Two such regions are Bridgeport, Conn., and the area along the Ohio River.

These areas do not receive much media attention, but the situation in these two areas still remains bleak. Although the news stations may have forgotten them, the students and faculty of Monmouth College have not; they even gave up their spring breaks to help those in need.

The Bridgeport area fell into financial strains in the 1970s, when many of the 500-plus factories went under, creating widespread crime. Over time, it has only become worse, such as in the early 1990s when police were forced to barricade streets, redirecting the traffic for their own protection. Today, it is just like a scene out of an old Western movie – so many businesses remain closed that it is a virtual ghost town.

Assistant director of leadership L.C. Coghill, and one of the 18 participating students, Kelli Wefenstette, were among those who traveled to the inner city of Bridgeport from March 9 through 17. Each day, waking as early as 6:30 a.m., time was spent in a different location, which included the Bridgeport Rescue Mission, the Connecticut Area Food Bank, the Cardinal Sheehan Center, Columbus Elementary school and the Habitat for Humanity program. The group managed to raise over $4,000.

They prepared and served dinner at the rescue mission and food bank to victims of Bridgeport’s poverty, helped students at the Columbus school and Sheehan Center and renovated a house with Habitat for Humanity. Wefenstette said the students really enjoyed tearing out the bay windows the most, using the crow bars and hammers they were provided. Coghill too commented that the projects the students accomplished were inspiring.

The students themselves also lived in poor conditions during the week they spent in Bridgeport, as everyone slept in one open room in the basement of the Sheehan Center. Aramark donated a few meals, but they mostly had to provide for themselves. What was most shocking, though, was that on the outskirts of a city with a murder rate over four times higher than the national average, there are mansions. Coghill described the situation, aghast that less than 10 miles stood between so many homeless and those in the lap of luxury. “People think of Connecticut and they think money,” he commented, but the poor are often forgotten. Bridgeport even has one of the highest tax rates and was once one of the three richest counties in the United States.

When people are forced to live in such poverty, the land also suffers. Such is the case along the Ohio River, where the rest of the Alternative Spring Breakers journeyed. Headed by faculty member Sam-Sang Jo, visiting assistant professor of political science, 15 Monmouth College students joined up with State University of New York-Geneseo to work with the Living Lands and Waters organization, founded by recent Monmouth College guest lecturer Chad Pregracki.

The program provided transportation, living accommodations for the week and food for the students. The week was spent digging garbage out of the river banks and putting it on barges. The group, which mostly consisted of international students, got a first-hand look at how parts of our country have become landfills. Some places were said to have been covered in garbage reaching 20 feet high. Anything and everything has been dumped along the river – even shopping carts. In one day, the students even managed to fill a whole barge with the garbage they uncovered.

It is obvious that there are areas in our country which need our help and attention. It may seem too daunting a task, but with people like the Monmouth students and faculty who have been helping those in need for 12 years now, we’re off to a good start.