Spring break is traditionally a time for students to bask in the sun. Some Iowa State students say it’s a time to sweat.

Many university students, like members of the Wesley Foundation and the ISU chapter of Habitat Humanity, will embark on a different kind of spring break next week.

Members of those groups will spend their break sharpening their carpentry skills constructing and remodeling homes in Colorado.

Mission to Denver

Sixteen members of the Wesley Foundation and Habitat for Humanity will depart for a mission trip to Denver, Colo., in two vans on March 8, said Michelle Mayfield, a peer minister with the Wesley Foundation. Although the groups will travel together, Habitat for Humanity is not associated with the Foundation.

The mission trip is being coordinated by DENUM (Denver Urban Ministries), a support organization which organizes groups to help with various shelters and build homes.

Greg Peterson, a junior in fine arts and a Habitat member, said the group will be split into three groups when members arrive in Denver.

Two of the groups will be working on the Habitat house.

“It’s a house being worked on by Habitat for Humanity, and we sell it to a family who couldn’t buy it on the regular market,” Peterson said. “It’ll be good if we meet the people [who will live there]. It’s always good.”

The houses Habitat has worked on during past missions range in size from a simple small home to big homes, which are turned into townhouses.

“Habitat goes through a pretty selective process to choose who can have a Habitat home,” Mayfield said.

Usually, the group chooses to construct homes for families with low incomes or those who are out of work, but the families are required to help build their home and another home being built, she said. The family also has to pay a monthly mortgage, which is usually much cheaper than realty prices, Mayfield said.

Meeting people

“There’s always really good [response]. They’re really welcoming to us,” Mayfield said. “For me, I love going on things like this and being able to do this for my own knowledge and not be sheltered in my own suburbia,” Mayfield said. “It actually affects us more than the people we work with. We come back feeling for them and wanting to do more for them.”

The other group on the trip will go to various other ministries to work with children, elderly and the sick, which may include AIDS patients, Peterson said.

This is the first year the two groups will work with people.

“Usually it’s been sorting clothes or painting walls along the side,” Peterson said.

The three groups will rotate after several days, so everyone has a chance to experience different aspects of the mission.

Peterson said the most worthwhile part about volunteering is seeing the finished projects.

“My favorite part about volunteering is getting to go back and visit the houses that I’ve worked to build. I see kids playing in the yard or just people living there, and I see the house totally different,” he said.

The ISU volunteers will likely meet students from across the country.