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UA service group looking for members, funding

While most students spend their spring breaks sunbathing and enjoying a respite from their rigorous schedules, members of Alternative Breaks are still working.

For these students, however, working has never been so expensive.

Alternative Breaks, a non-profit student organization, sends students to do charity work from Imuris, Mexico to San Jose, Calif., during spring break.

In order to finance the trips, group members plan to raise $10,000 -Ø$6,500 of which they have to raise with the assistance of the University of Arizona.

The group has been selling pumpkins on the UA Mall this week. The sale ends today.

"We're going to finish off the pumpkin sale, hold car washes and hopefully clean up after games (at McKale Center)," said Sarah Burns, a member of the UA chapter of Alternative Breaks.

Club members are also planning to request between $800-$950 from the Associated Students of the University of Arizona to help pay for the trips.

Each member of the club, which has 70 members, is asked to pitch in $35 for the trip.

"The national organization (Break Away) is huge," Burns said. "Students back east get no school funding and have to pay hundreds of dollars to participate in this program. We're very lucky to get this kind of support from ASUA."

To receive funds from ASUA, an organization must submit a request form that explains how the money will be used. If approved by the ASUA Appropriations Board, the request is put on the consent agenda so the ASUA Senate can vote on it.

"We have to make sure that it covers the expenses of the students, not the charity itself," said ASUA President Cisco Aguilar.

Aside from fundraising, club members have been actively recruiting new members on the UA Mall.

"It's better to have smaller groups, like 25 people per trip, so we hope in the future to expand the number of trips that we go on," Burns said.

The first of the four trips planned will take students to Imuris, Mexico to work at a children's orphanage. Painting, repairing and cleaning are among the activities on the group's agenda.

The rest of their trips will be in California. In San Jose, some club members will help the homeless through house building while other members will head to Los Angeles to work with AIDS patients at a food bank. The fourth group goes to Catalina Island for facilities maintenance work.

Alternative Breaks is also aided by donations from businesses such as restaurants and supermarkets.

"Last year Bruegger's gave us enough bagels for every group to eat for the whole trip," Burns said.

Alternative Breaks is going to apply for funding with the ASUA early next spring.

"If it benefits students and benefits the university then it probably will go through," Aguilar said.