Students head south for study break

Students with the Schulich School of Law traveled to New Orleans last February to work on a Habitat for Humanity build. (Photo courtesy of Daniel Pink)

Daniel Pink traveled to New Orleans last year during study week. Instead of laying around on the beach, he built a new home for a young single mother. “I helped build the roof,” he says. “I’m terrified of heights but it was very cool to be involved.” 

Before you book your tickets to Cancun for study week, consider giving back. Mr. Pink is one of the nearly 200 students whose headed to the Gulf Coast to help re-build communities with Habitat for Humanity. The Dalhousie Law Habitat for Humanity branch and Dal Action (formerly Dalhousie Habitat for Humanity) organize trips to the region in hopes of giving students a fun alternative to the usual vacation.

Dal Law Habitat for Humanity took its first trip last year. Thirty law students went to New Orleans to build homes and plant trees in local swampland while based at Camp Hope. The group hopes to send 50 to 60 students this year. “I remember seeing a house in the middle of the road the first year I went,” says Mr. Pink. “It’s amazing how much work still needs to be done.”

Josh Vomberg followed in his brother Aaron’s footsteps when he went on the Habitat for Humanity trip. In 2009, Dal Action sent 150 students to Biloxi, Mississippi to assist various organizations in an area badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina. The local hospital only recently became fully restored and more than 500 homes were destroyed.

“We were volunteering with the Hope Organization going door to door to offer help,” says Mr. Vomberg, volunteer coordinator of Dal Action. “I helped a retired army veteran and his wife mow their lawn and do some outdoor chores. It took them a year to fix their house but they’re still there.”

Dal Action hopes to expand their giving ways through partnerships with soup kitchens and other on-campus community groups. The group will be hosting a charity event on January 20 in the T-Room on Sexton Campus to raise funds for their next trip.

“I fully realize what an impact students can make,” says Mr. Vomberg. “It’s a life changing experience.”

LINK: Dal Action on Facebook

SEE STORY: Helping others never gets old in Dal News