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Nearly 300 Mizzou students to spend weekend serving communities across Missouri

March 8th, 2018

Story Contact: Sheena Rice, 573-882-8353, ricesm@missouri.edu

COLUMBIA, Mo. – While some students might spend weekends hanging out with friends or bingeing their favorite show on Netflix, 290 University of Missouri students will be hitting the road Friday for a weekend of volunteer service to give back to Missouri. This weekend, 30 groups of students will be traveling to 25 Missouri counties and St. Louis for their service trips.

“The Mizzou Alternative Breaks weekend program provides University of Missouri students a chance to give back to communities across Missouri,” said Marshall Stewart, vice chancellor for extension and engagement at MU. “Mizzou Alternative Breaks has a long history of sending passionate, service-minded students across the United States and abroad to serve, and I’m excited that so many students are passionate about also giving back to the state of Missouri.”

In 2014, Mizzou Alternative Breaks announced a partnership with MU Extension and pledged to bring service trips to all of Missouri’s 114 counties by 2020. After this weekend, Mizzou Alternative Breaks will have served 97 counties and the city of St. Louis.

Weekend participants will learn about important community issues including education, health and homelessness. Volunteer activities include:

  • volunteering at Crown Care Nursing Center in Cass County.
  • painting projects throughout the community with 4-H participants in Putnam County.
  • assisting the Marshall Animal Shelter in Saline County.
  • working at Pomme de Terre State Park in Hickory County.
  • restoring graveyard stones with Habitat for Humanity in Dekalb County.

Founded in 1991, Mizzou Alternative Breaks sends groups of students on service trips during selected weekends and Thanksgiving, spring, summer and winter breaks. Participants enter communities with the mindset of “serve, don’t help”— one of the program’s guiding principles.

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