SCRANTON — The words “snow” and “Jamaica” aren’t often seen together in the same sentence. But both have been on the minds of a group of Marywood University students, including 2013 Abington Heights graduate Ashley Akers.
Hundreds of small white plastic “snowballs” were rolled down University Avenue Jan. 27 during the campus ministry office’s first-ever Snowball Roll, a fundraiser to benefit the alternative break service trip program. People purchased the numbered “snowballs” for a donation of $2 each, and prizes were awarded for those first to cross the finish line. Money raised will benefit several service trip teams, including one to Jamaica, of which Akers is a part.
An experience of a lifetime
“I think it’s very important that people take advantage of these trips when they’re given (the opportunity), and I think it’s definitely an experience that I will appreciate for the rest of my life,” said the Clarks Summit resident.
The program includes partnerships with organizations around the world. This year, participating students will travel to places as close as Pittsburgh and as far away as Guatemala, giving up their traditional spring breaks to help with everything from building infrastructure to raising religious awareness.
The Jamaica team will serve for one week with Mustard Seed Communities, a non-profit organization that cares for vulnerable populations in society. Akers said she and 12 other young women from the university will work and room together for most of the week at one of the organization’s homes for adolescents and young adults with physical and mental disabilities.
“We’ve been conducting some research, trying to create activities and things we can do with the people there,” she said, adding she is especially excited to introduce the residents to some new games, which the workers there can continue playing with them even after her team is gone.
“I’m really looking forward to interacting with the people,” she said. “People with special needs are the happiest, nicest, most fun people ever.”
A veteran volunteer
The senior is no stranger to missions and service trips. While in junior and senior high, she travelled with the Our Lady of the Snows Church youth group several times to West Virginia to serve with the nonprofit organization Habitat for Humanity. The upcoming journey to Jamaica will be her second time participating in the alternative break service trip program at Marywood. She was a member of a team that conducted a medical mission trip to Guatemala in 2016.
Prior to her journey to Guatemala, part of her research as a psychology major included studies of malnourishment patterns between mothers and their children, something she was able to then witness first hand.
“I had never been to a country like Guatemala,” she said. “We went and I got to see a lot of developmental patterns that I learned about in school, but I got to see them in a third world country, which was interesting.”
But no amount of research could have prepared her for the real-life experience.
“I can positively say it is nothing like you read about,” she said. “It takes a little bit of a toll on you mentally; it’s a very, very, very humbling experience. There were times during the trip where I cried, where I was a little angry – which is human nature. The people who live there – you can read about them in books, you can see pictures of the kids who are starving and don’t have shoes, but when you see it in person, and those kids are playing with you, and just thanking you for being there…The kids are the happiest kids I’ve ever seen in my life. The people were so happy.”
Creation of an advocate
Following graduation this spring, Akers plans to pursue a master’s degree in Global Development, on track for a career in global health advocacy.
She said participating in these service trips fuels this desire.
Even when faced with obstacles such as homesickness, a lack of connectivity to the rest of the world, health concerns and cultural differences, she said leaving brings feeling of sorrow, and making the transition back home proves difficult.
“People often forget that, although there are a lot of issues in the United States, there’s people around the world who have even worse issues or the same ones, and people tend to forget about them,” she said. “I think it’s important to advocate for them and remind people of that.”
Each participant in the alternative spring break service trip to Jamaica must raise $1,200 in order to go. Donations can be made online to benefit specific students or the entire team at bit.ly/2kb6Jsu.
