Students · March 9, 2026
Sixty-Four Students Head Out on Six Alternative Spring Break Trips
Teams will repair homes, restore trout streams and work in food kitchens over spring break, and no student pays more than $175.
Sixty-four students and eight staff and faculty advisers will spend spring break, March 14–22, on six service trips organized by the student-run Alternative Breaks organization. It is the largest group the program has sent out since it began in 2011. Teams applied last October and have met every other week since to study the issue each trip is built around.
| Trip | Where | Focus | Students |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home repair | Porter County | Accessibility ramps and weatherization for older homeowners | 12 |
| Trout streams | Driftless region, southwest Wesconsin | Streambank restoration and invasive brush removal | 12 |
| Food systems | The Cities | Community kitchens and an urban farm cooperative | 10 |
| Storm recovery | A small town in the southern Plains | Rebuilding after last spring’s tornado | 12 |
| Housing | Lake City | Family shelter support and an eviction-prevention clinic | 8 |
| Rural health | Northern Wesconsin | Health-fair screenings with a county public health office | 10 |
A full trip costs about $640 per student, for transportation, lodging (usually church basements and community-center floors) and food. Students pay $175 at most. The rest comes from the student activity fee, a fall fundraising drive and a grant from the Center for Community Engagement. Fourteen students got their share waived entirely on need.
“Every year someone asks whether we’re actually helping or just making ourselves feel good. That’s why we spend five months learning about the issue first. The tornado-recovery team has read the town’s rebuilding plan cover to cover. They know what the town needs from us, and what it doesn’t.”
— Nadia Brekken, a senior in rehabilitation services from Founders Triangle and the organization’s president
The rural health trip is new this year. It was proposed by nursing and dietetics students, and the county health office asked for help with screenings at three spring health fairs. Students on that trip will work under the supervision of a nursing faculty member and a county nurse.
The send-off is Friday, March 13, at 4 p.m. in Founders Union, and anyone is welcome. Trips return March 21 and 22. Each team will present what it learned at a public reflection night in April. Applications for next year’s trips open in September. The annual send-off is listed on the events calendar, and other ways to help locally are on the volunteer on campus page.
Contact: Office of University Communications, news@uwporterfalls.edu
Fictional information
UW–Porter Falls is a work of parody. These trips, their costs, destinations and the student quoted are invented, and no real service partner is described.