THE CROSS

While many UT students look forward to Fall Break as a time for themselves, a group of Volunteers spent the break serving other communities.

The Cross, a Greek life Christian ministry, that has service trips every fall and spring break, and TeamVOLS Alternative Fall Break traveled outside Tennessee to help others this year.

"The Cross takes two mission trips each year, one on Fall Break and one on Spring Break," Ann Wallace, women’s coordinator for The Cross, said.

Wallace said, over the past three years, The Cross has gone to Pineville, Ky., during Fall Break, and there have been seven trips to the Mississippi and Louisiana coast rebuilding in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The Cross volunteers to perform light-construction duties on these service trips. Wallace said projects vary from building porches, handicapped ramps and minor, exterior home repairs.

Occasionally, there are more challenging tasks for volunteers.

Wallace described a project building a ramp, which required an over 100-foot ramp to be built on a slope to secure the foundations, but the problem was there was little lateral space.

"This enabled an elderly woman in her 80s and her daughter, in her 50s, to be able to be wheeled out of the house to their doctor appointments without having to be carried out by the emergency medical technicians, which had to be done prior to us building this colossal ramp.”

Wallace said this ramp was built over the last Fall Break trip, when The Cross took 85 UT students and volunteer construction crew chiefs to Pineville.

Another UT organization, TeamVOLS, is making five service trips this year: three during the fall and two during the spring.

"Typically, people who come on the trips are those that want to do something meaningful over a school break," Beth Garner, senior in logistics who went with TeamVOLS on an alternative break trip, said.

Garner said TeamVOLS worked with Safe Place, a YMCA program for children with problems at home; Active Day, a day facility for adults with mental and physical disabilities; Dare to Care, a food bank where they moved over 15,000 pounds of food; and Catholic Charities of Louisville to provide coats and compile Christmas wish lists for refugee families.

Emily Berry, junior in lower division, said The Cross worked with Lagniappe Presbyterian Church to help victims of Hurricane Katrina during the past several Spring Break trips to Bay St. Louis, Miss.

Berry recounted her service trip with The Cross.

"From my experience with the trips, and as many other people who have gone on them can witness, the people who we help touch our lives as much, if not more, than we touch theirs."

Garner, who went on a TeamVOLS trip, spoke about her experience as well.

"It is one of the best kept secrets on campus,” Garner said. “It's something unique where you can help others and grow as an individual."

Berry said people can go on a service trip or attend The Cross even if they are not in a Greek organization.

Trent Willingham, the trip coordinator for The Cross, spoke about the last fall break trip to Pineville.

"Roughly 85 percent of the students who went on the trip are in a Greek organization, but you do not have to be involved in Greek life to go on the trip."

Non-Greek service opportunities are also offered through TeamVOLS.

The TeamVOLS application is available online at its Web site. Interested students must schedule an interview by visiting the TeamVOLS office. Interviews will take place Nov. 9 through Nov. 13.

Students interested in going on a service trip with The Cross do not have to go through an application process. Berry said they just have to sign up.

"We want everyone who has an interest in going to be able to go," she said.