Some students spend spring break relaxing in the sun, but the McDaniel Catholic Campus Ministry made a trip to the mountains of eastern Kentucky to serve with the Appalachian Mission Service.

Elizabeth Elkins ’10, Charissa Ellis ’10, Stacy Fitzwater ’07, Fernando Gomes ’10, Laura Hutton ’09, Meghan O’Brien ’08 and Katelyn Ryan ’08, along with University of Maryland student Michael Leard and the Rev. John Robbins from St. John Church in Westminster took part in several projects. They renovated houses that will be used for drug rehabilitation and for the homeless, and helped with the Appalachian Mission Service warehouse and rummage store, which provides clothing and goods to the local population.

“When you walk through a city, you see homeless people on the street,” says Fitzwater. “In Kentucky you don’t see homelessness and poverty unless you go looking for it. But it’s one of the poorest areas in the country.”

First, the team moved things out of a neglected two-story house that will be used as a drug rehabilitation center. They hauled a counter top and cabinetry to an outside shed.

They tore out the old carpeting and scraped the floors to get rid of the foam padding and adhesive.

Elkins tackles window trim, while Ryan, Ellis, Hutton and Gomes paint the front door frame.

O’Brien, Leard, Elkins and Ellis clear out a drainage ditch behind a mobile home housing a homeless couple. The new trench will protect the home from floods.

The team works at the Appalachian Mission Service warehouse.

And afterwards, a group photo. Top row, from left: the warehouse manager, Michael Leard, Stacy Fitzwater and a warehouse worker, Bottom row: a warehouse worker, Katelyn Ryan, Laura Hutton, the Rev. John Robbins.

The AMS has for more than 50 years trained the unemployed, housed the homeless, cared for people through difficult times and provided food and other goods to the poor.

The McDaniel Catholic Campus Ministry joins service projects all over the country. In years past, they cleaned up hurricane-ravaged Florida and worked with the Youth Services Opportunities Project in Washington, D.C. Learn more about the Catholic campus ministry here.