Helping Hands WSU Students Spend Spring Break Volunteering
While many of their peers are relaxing on sunny beaches, a handful of Washington State University students are seeing the underside of Spokane this spring break.
They are sleeping on hard cots at a homeless shelter, eating elbow to elbow with transients, comforting homeless and abused children.
And they are realizing that the problems of poverty cannot be overcome with a few days of hard work.
“I came with the idea of helping other people,” said Christina Stratler, a freshman business major.
The group of 29 arrived at the House of Charity on Wednesday night.
They were surprised to find that shelter, as well as the Union Gospel Mission where they went to work Thursday, so clean. They expected mattresses on the floor, roaches in the kitchens.
“It’s definitely not the way you see it in the movies and on the cop shows,” said Celeste Seibel, a sophomore business major.
The group credits the staff and volunteers at the shelters for the clean conditions. Still, the accommodations are not what they are used to.
“I’m glad I had my shower shoes,” said Sheila Inhofer, a senior English major.
The students slept in large rooms on rock-hard mattresses. The bathrooms had no stalls. Noise from the street outside and the people inside made their sleep fitful and intermittent.
“I guess I never thought about how stressful being homeless would be,” said Stratler. “I mean, when you sleep, when you’re alone that’s when you unwind. If you don’t have a comfortable place to sleep or to be alone, you would never unwind.”
After breakfast Thursday, the students split up in groups of four or five and set out for the day. Their work ranged from serving meals and cleaning rooms at the shelters, to helping teachers at the YWCA’s school for homeless children, to building homes for Habitat for Humanity.
They were surprised to find their assumptions shattered.
The students at the homeless school were bright and energetic, not dull and introverted. The men at the homeless shelters were young and polite, not rude and eccentric.
The group assigned to build houses found themselves standing in the rain, ankle-deep in mud, making the frame for the foundation. They thought were going to install drywall.
“We expected nice sunny weather, to be working in shorts,” said Mark Arroyo, a junior sociology student.
They plunged in and did what they were told. Within an hour, their coats and shoes were covered in mud.
The clothes would have to last them two more days. The lessons would last a lifetime.
“Sometimes we really want to help, but we don’t know how,” Seibel said. “Now we know what to do, we know how to help. Maybe we can convince some of our friends, too.”
The trip was organized by eight Pullman churches with campus ministries. The students come from a variety of faiths and backgrounds.
Campus ministers hope the students will take their experiences back to the classroom.
“When they hear about poverty, hopefully they will know from first-hand experience what poverty really is,” said Barb Zobitz-Taft, a campus minister for the Newman Center, a Catholic ministry. “If nothing else, I hope they learn that you can’t judge a person until you’ve walked a mile in their moccasins.”