Ripon College Days

Media Credit: Photo by Andrew Krajewski Pie in the face. Senior Eric Eguina pies Professor of Biology Skip Wittler in the face. The event was a fundraiser for those students going to New York City this spring break. [Click to enlarge]

As Spring Break draws nearer, many students turn their thoughts to plans for the week off. While many of their peers head for the beaches, other Ripon students will spend the break putting muscle into good causes.

Director of Residence Life Josh De War is taking a group of students to New York City to assist AIDS victims.

Community Service Coalition has organized its annual Habitat for Humanity trip.

Ripon Community Action Network (CAN) will travel to Louisiana to help with Hurricane Katrina rebuilding.

New York City AIDS Assistance

Nine students, accompanied by De War and another supervisor, have opted to travel to New York for an alternate spring break.

The group will travel by plane and work with an outreach program to assist HIV and AIDS positive victims, working in soup kitchens and hospices in New York City.

"I was compelled to go because although I have studied AIDS and HIV through school, I have never had any real first-hand experience," says junior Stephanie Klomsten. "I wanted to go to meet people who were dealing with the phenomenon and to help out in any way I could."

To help cover the cost of the trip, about $500 to $700, the group has been doing a lot of fundraising. Some of the most recent fundraisers included a date auction and the pie-a-professor.

"I believe this trip is going to be an experience of a lifetime," says sophomore Shannon Henderson.

Habitat Heads to West Virginia

Other Ripon students will be pounding nails, hanging drywall or washing windows for Habitat for Humanity this spring break.

As part of Ripon's Community Service Coalition (CSC), ten students will spend their spring break building a home for a family in Franklin, W.V., although they don't know what type of work they will be doing until they arrive.

Quads Hall Director Scott Mundro is co-advising the Habitat trip with Program Director of the CSC Jessica Joanis.

Each student is asked to contribute $100, but fundraising covers all additional costs. One of the upcoming fundraisers is the build-a-house in the commons.

"We'll have a blank house and you can buy bricks or other house pieces and sign your names to them, for varying increments. At the end of the week we will have a completed house full of all these signatures from people who support Habitat for Humanity," says Mundro.

Some students may not have the skills to build a house before they go on the trip.

"They teach you everything you need to know from siding to roofing to drywall. You do not need any skills to go on the trip just willingness to work hard," says junior Jordyn Rush, CSC student worker, who has attended two Habitat trips with CSC.

Cleaning Up After Katrina

A third group of Ripon students will be headed to Bernard Parish, La. The trip is sponsored by Ripon CAN.

"We hope that through this trip we can get a chance to really help people in a direct way," says Charles Oberweiser, co-leader of Ripon CAN.

The group will be working with the New Orleans Habitat for Humanity.

"Instead of putting drywall in a newly built house, we will probably be removing all the drywall and other pieces of the house to get it back down to the frame, which is probably one of the few reusable pieces in the house," says Kate Hersey, co-leader of Ripon CAN.

According to Hersey, the New Orleans area is finally at the point where rebuilding can begin.

"I have wanted to do this type of thing ever since I was in high school and college students came to our town and worked on Habitat houses," says first year Amanda Hoefner, a Ripon CAN scholar who will be attending the trip.

"This will be a good opportunity to reach out to the hurricane victims. I think it will be a really powerful thing to go and help the people who are really suffering," says Hoefner.

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