Rummage Sale Funds Student Trips For Spring Break

By Broadside Correspondent Joe Beeton

The Alternative Break program will hold a rummage sale this week, Jan. 26-30, to fundraise various community service trips planned and lead by student volunteers. Students attending the trips will be selling clothes, handbags, household items and even a television, as well as other donations from Mason faculty, staff and students. The sale will take place every day this week from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. outside of Dewberry Hall.

“For those [who] are big thrift shoppers, this is a great opportunity to get your thrift on without having to leave campus,” said senior communication major Justin Fogota.

Sarai Garnett, a senior communication major who is co-leading an upcoming trip to Philadelphia with Fogota, also encourages all members of the community to check out the sale. Garnett believes the sale will be a great opportunity to find some hidden treasures, have fun and support a great cause.

The rummage sale has become a tradition for the AB program. Students who have held the sale in past years have found it to be a great way to defray transportation and housing costs while also creating a fun way to get to know their AB team members and participants of other teams.

All proceeds of the sale will go toward funding the five different trips scheduled for spring break in March. The trips include locations and programs from previous years as well as a few new ones.

Students will volunteer for the prevention of HIV/AIDS in New York City, build houses with Habitat for Humanity in Waynesburg, Pa., mentor urban youth in Atlanta, Ga., and do conservation work such as building bridges in Stuart, Fl.

On the trip to Philadelphia, Garnett and Fogota and other students will work alongside City Year, a volunteer organization that fosters social awareness and tackles community needs all over the nation. Students will be painting murals in an effort to rejuvenate metro stops and helping to plan an event for City Year’s Young Heroes program.

“All of the trips’ participants will benefit greatly by learning new things about themselves and other communities. Also, the communities that participants do service in will gain a stronger sense about our generation, [Mason,] and hopefully themselves,” said Garnett.

“As cliché as it may sound, AB trips really are a life-changing experience,” Fogota said.

Deadlines for the spring trips have passed but students can still propose and apply to upcoming summer programs on the Center for Leadership and Community Engagement’s Web site.