FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 03/06/2008

BC Students Turn Spring Break Into Service Opportunity

BRIDGEWATER, Va. — Seven Bridgewater College students will take up hammers and paint brushes as they volunteer as construction workers for Habitat's Collegiate Challenge Spring Break 2008.

The seven students, accompanied by Joseph Crockett, professor and chair of chemistry, will leave for Sumter, S.C., on Saturday, March 15, and return to campus on Saturday, March 22.

For the 2008 Spring Break Challenge, the group will work with the Sumter Habitat for Humanity affiliate and a group of 19 volunteers from Stockton College in New Jersey, to complete two houses. All of the volunteers will stay at St. John's Lutheran Church.

Four-year veteran member of the BC Habitat for Humanity chapter, Jessica Powers has served as president for the past two years and will be the student leader for the trip. As leader, she will serve as a liaison between the Sumter affiliate and the BC group.

Powers, who is making her fourth Habitat trip, says she has always had a heart for service and the Spring Break Challenges provide a special opportunity for her to volunteer. "There are definitely times during the week when the work is hard and I get tired," she says, "but the sense of accomplishment you feel when you look at what your group has finished in just five days is incredible."

According to Powers, the trips provide both challenges and benefits. Staying flexible is a must – one year volunteers dug trenches rather than framing and roofing work. With a smaller group this year, Powers sees the benefit of learning to know the other students better.

Powers, a psychology major with a minor in communication studies, is the daughter of Wayne and Sheila Powers of Hagerstown, Md.

The Bridgewater College Campus Chapter, established in 1995, is one of nearly 700 campus chapters worldwide. Organized by Bridgewater students, the group is affiliated with Central Valley Habitat for Humanity, located in Bridgewater, and helps provide shelter to the residents of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County.

Now in its 32^nd year, Habitat for Humanity International is a non-profit, ecumenical Christian organization dedicated to eliminating poverty housing worldwide. The organization works in part

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nership with people in need throughout the world, building simple, decent shelter that is sold to them at no profit, through no-interest loans.

This makes the 16^th year that Bridgewater College students have used their spring break to work in various Habitat projects, including trips to Miami, Atlanta, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Johns Island, S. C., Independence, Mo., and Austin, Texas.

Two sophomores are making their second trip with the Spring Break Challenge. They are Katy Laning, a liberal studies major, from Midlothian, Va., and Louis Sanchez, a business administration and information systems management double major, from Harrisonburg, Va.

Other students participating are: Jessica Clevenger, a senior liberal studies major, from Winchester, Va.; Katie Payne, a freshman psychology major, from Amissville, Va.; Christy Villalobos, a sophomore political science major, from Sterling, Va.; and Julia Zirpoli, a junior psychology major, from Westminster, Md.

Bridgewater College, a private, four-year liberal arts college, enrolls more than 1,500 students. Founded in 1880 and located in the Central Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, it was the state's first private, coeducational senior college.

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