Alternative Spring Break Provides Aid in New Orleans, Phoenix, Boston
April 01, 2008
Forty Emmanuel community members participated in this year’s Alternative Spring Break program, which sent three different groups to service sites around the country during the week of March 9th. Students, faculty and staff provided aid in New Orleans and Phoenix, as well as locally through the Colleges of the Fenway’s (COF) second annual Boston Immersion Alternative Spring Break.
For the second consecutive year, a group traveled to New Orleans to continue the service work still required due to the effects of Hurricane Katrina. The original idea of sending an Emmanuel faction down south stemmed from the initiative set forth by Professor of Sociology and Religious Studies and Director of the Center for Mission and Spirituality Sister Mary Johnson, SND, who traveled to the city with a class of students in May 2006 as part of her “Catholic Social Teaching” course, to assist the Sisters of the Holy Family with relief work.
This year’s group once again stayed and volunteered with the Sisters, an African-American Congregation of Pontifical Status that centers on educating youth and caring for the aged, the poor and the most abject of society, working throughout their two independent facilities for low-income senior citizens in the city.
Another group of Emmanuel volunteers provided service once again in Phoenix with the Society of St. Vincent De Paul, a Catholic lay organization, and the Andre House, a non-profit organization sponsored by the Priests and Brothers of Holy Cross from the University of Notre Dame. This marked the sixth anniversary of the College’s relationship with the Arizona foundations, which allow students to assist the organizations’ staffs with a variety of daily tasks.
Emmanuel also hosted the COF’s Boston Immersion Alternative Spring Break again this year, with students learning about the educational challenges facing inner-city youth today. The week’s events included trips to a number of local schools and programs dedicated to providing children with pathways and support for successful transitions after high school, as well as lunch with Representative Jeffrey Sánchez and City Councilor Michael Ross.