“We worked with the Pronino Organization in El Progresso, Honduras, a rehabilitation center made up of two different stages to help street children,” said trip leader and sophomore Jordan Cobb. “Everyone on the trip formed relationships with the children and gained a great amount of awareness of the situation thousands of Honduran children are facing.”
Freshman Tara Moore spent six days in Honduras with Help For Honduran Children Foundation in Flor Azul.
“Some of our group was working on building a tilapia farm, so the boys could eat more food and sell some of the fish,” Moore said. “But more than carrying the bricks to be put on the edges of the pond was showing them love. The number of hugs I gave to those boys everyday- I couldn’t even count.”
Sophomore Christopher Ford and junior David Hanegraaff led a group sponsored by the Kernodle Center for Service Learning to the Dominican Republic. There they built affordable housing for area residents.
Students who traveled to Highlands with group leader and sophomore Chrissy Orangio worked to support the environmental mission of the Mountain Retreat and Learning Center. According to the Kernodle Center for Service Learning, they cleared trails, weeded and worked with Habitat for Humanity.
Twenty-five students and advisers worked in the Hurricane Katrina-stricken area of Bay St. Louis, Miss. They rebuilt rooms, laid foundations, helped raise two houses on stilts and aided in installing Sheetrock and insulation.
“Everyone went to our work sites with a smile on their face, worked their butts off, then came back and laughed and had some kind of group activity together,” co-group leader and freshman Kristine Silvestri said. “The trip was so much more productive considering all the cooperation and flexibility that the students had. I was really proud of their maturity and character.”
Elon is currently ranked first in the nation for the level of community service commitment at the university level.