This post was written by Hatchet staff writer Kelsey Renz.
Junior Daniela DiGuido did not spend the last week of winter vacation catching up with friends and family at home.
Instead, the junior spent a 24-hour-long bus ride traveling to New Orleans to work with a local nonprofit and restore homes that had been damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
She was one of 150 GW volunteers who donated their time through the Alternative Winter Break Program, an initiative that looks to broaden students’ global horizons and push their personal growth through service learning.
Students and faculty embark on weeklong trips each winter in specific areas of community service like education and construction.
Last week, GW Alternative Breaks participants traveled to Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, where they undertook projects such as building and delivering clean burning stoves, assisting with the sustainable construction of a technical school and teaching English.
DiGuido was inspired to serve in New Orleans, previously ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, after her own home was damaged by Hurricane Sandy last year.
“Due to 9 feet of flooding, our home’s foundation had to be restructured and our entire basement and first floor were taken out and completely redone,” DiGuido, a former Hatchet reporter, said in an email.
“Sandy was definitely not on the same scale as Katrina in terms of lives lost and major damage done,” she added, “but it inspired me to learn more about disaster relief and what I could do to help.”
While working in New Orleans, DiGuido and others visited a “museum” put together by a homeowner, featuring handmade art and photographs depicting the hurricane’s aftermath.
“The photos on the wall of families during flooding were chilling, especially ones involving children. Seeing that and being able to speak to owners about their stories makes everything we do worth it,” she said.
The volunteers traveled back to campus on Saturday and Sunday.
The GW Alternative Breaks Program also organizes trips over spring break Alternative Spring Break trips, and this year volunteers can head to 11 different locations.
Though applications for spring trips are no longer being accepted, you can learn more about opportunities for the 2014-2015 school year by visiting the program’s website or by following them on Facebook and Twitter.
