Students Spend Spring Break Helping Store, Homeowners
March 10, 2010
By Kara Phelpsfor NewsChief.com
WINTER HAVEN - These college students, like so many thousands, came to Florida for their spring break. But unlike the more typical spring breakers currently flocking to the coasts, a group of 34 decided to help a Winter Haven thrift shop and two Polk County homeowners still recuperating from Tropical Storm Fay.
Students from Stonehill College, a Catholic school in Easton, Mass., arrived in Winter Haven on Sunday night. Small groups are volunteering their labor this week at various places around Polk County, including Regenerations, a thrift store run by St. Matthew Catholic Church of Winter Haven.
Meghan Hartford, a senior at Stonehill, said some of her friends went to the Dominican Republic for their break. But volunteering can have its own rewards, she said. She described the different world view it brings to many students.
"It makes you realize how fortunate you are to have just the basic, everyday needs," Hartford said.
A group of six students, as well as coordinator Kate Rafey of AmeriCorps, were at Regenerations all day Tuesday, sorting donations and clearing out storage areas. The building on Central Avenue once housed the first-ever Publix Supermarket owned by founder George Jenkins, said J.D. Dobratz, director of operations for St. Matthew Church.
The church opened the thrift shop in January, and now, it hopes to transform the building's storage area into the offices of a counseling service geared toward low-income families.
But first they need to clear away the old toys, broken fans and decrepit desks in storage. That became Tuesday's job for Hartford, Rafey, sophomore Rachel Norberg, junior Meaghan Griffin, freshman Lindsay Castongueay, sophomore Kate Klessens and freshman Laura Pulcini.
Monday, some of the students volunteered in Haines City and Lakeland, helping two homeowners whose houses were damaged in Tropical Storm Fay's sweep through the area in 2008. They worked on drywall, replaced ceilings, primed and painted walls and did yard work. Other students were there Tuesday - they plan to rotate among the locations in groups.
Klessens, Norberg and Hartford said they met the homeowner they worked for Monday, and talked with her as she expressed her thanks.
"It makes you feel like you accomplished something," Klessens said.
The 34 Stonehill students came to Polk via the National Relief Network, a Michigan-based organization that coordinates volunteers looking to serve in disaster areas.
The "Alternative Spring Break" experience is common at the small school. Of Stonehill's 2,600 or so students, 200 signed up for various Alternative Spring Break programs, to spend the week volunteering.
"The school prides itself on community service," Dobratz said.
Rebuild Polk, a local organization that started in the wake of the 2004 hurricanes, asked the NRN for volunteers, and it sent the Stonehill group. St. Matthew worked with Rebuild Polk to bring them to Regenerations.
But the students' accommodations fell through on short notice, and St. Matthew found itself scrambling to house them. St. Joseph's Catholic Church heard about the problem and lent the church air mattresses for the students. They were set up on the floor of the thrift shop, to be rolled away during business hours. And the Winter Haven Family YMCA on Cypress Gardens Boulevard let the students take showers at its facilities.
Dobratz called the students' presence in Polk County "the collaboration of a number of pieces."
At the end of every day, after the students cook dinner, they talk about their experiences in discussions led by coordinators like Rafey. They also write in journals. The daily time of reflection helps keep things in perspective in case of a bad day, they said, and brings them all together.
They will be volunteering every day until Saturday, when they're scheduled to leave for Stonehill again.
kara.phelps@newschief.com
Photo 1: Kate Rafey, left, and Lindsay Castonguay transport boxes for storage at the Regenerations thrift store in Winter Haven Tuesday morning. Tuesday, March 09, 2010.
Photo 2: Stonehill College students manhandle an old desk as they clear out storage space at the Regenerations thrift store in Winter Haven Tuesday morning. Tuesday, March 09, 2010.
Photo 3: Kate Klessens, left, and Meghan Hartford, both college students from Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts, wheel out Santa and Christmas decorations in the storage room at Regenerations thrift store in Winter Haven Tuesday morning. Tuesday, March 09, 2010.
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