Annalyse Doria of La Grange, a senior at the University of Illinois at Springfield, is a student columnist for The Doings-ClarendonHills. The following column appeared in an April 28, 2011 edition.
"Spring break, in many people's eyes, is a time to relax, go on a warm vacation, or catch up on lost sleep. Until a little over a month ago, that's exactly what it had meant to me; however, this year I decided to look into something that I had heard so much about called alternative spring break. Over the years I had heard extremely positive remarks about experiences people had while on alternative spring break trips. I had wanted to start volunteering again for over a year so when I returned to school after a relaxing summer I signed up to be on the committee. Twenty meetings later and six hours away from home, I found myself standing with 22 strangers a hotel lobby in Memphis Tenn"
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