Spring Break 2012: Ole Spring Relief

Campus has livened up this past week, as students returned from Spring Break off-campus. Many students chose to take part in outings aside from simply the typical beach-destination style of trip. Ole Spring Relief (OSR), in its seventh year, brought along over 100 students to volunteer in clean-up efforts. Evan Deam ’14 shares a few thoughts about his experience, and Steven Wett ’15 provides the photos. Their experience received local press in the Birmingham News.

This OSR trip (OSR7) was my second, and it was just as much if not more fun than the previous year, in my opinion.  I was on the planning committee this year, so it was extremely satisfying to see things go so smoothly.  Despite a last-minute setback involving some volunteering falling through, the committee compensated amazingly and we still managed to get in a lot of great service.  The volunteering focus was on tornado relief in the southern US (Alabama and Tennessee).

But doing service is only part of the reason I like OSR so much.  Another reason is that it’s such a great opportunity to meet and befriend a bunch of various Oles you might not otherwise get the chance to meet.  Even though the trip is only a week long, we get really close to one another; surely this is testament to the St. Olaf community.

– Evan Deam ’14; photos by Steven Wett ’15