Students wait 20 hours for ASB trips

The hallway on the second floor of Wilson Hall was crowded with sleeping bags, blankets, pillows, laptop computers, portable DVD players and a little less than 80 exhausted and disheveled undergrads at 10:30 p.m. Monday night.

Sign-ups for international and long-distance Alternative Spring Break trips began at 11 p.m. sharp, but some students showed up as early as 3 a.m. Monday morning to be first in line to sign up for the week-long service trips.

"A lot of energy and excitement [has been] a tradition around ASB," said assistant director of educational support programs Lorelei Esbenshade. "People play games and watch movies."

There were six trips available with about eight to 10 spots for which any student to sign up, and one trip which was reserved specifically for social work majors, Esbenshade said. The international and long distance trip sign-ups are held early to give students a chance to raise money for them.

The trips were to the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Dominica, Oklahoma and Florida.
Senior Stephanie Van Arsdale said she only had been waiting since 10:30 a.m.

"In the past two years, I’ve waited almost 24 hours," she said. This will be the third ASB trip that Van Arsdale has participated in while at JMU.

She described her time spent overseas in Jamaica and the Dominican Republic as "an amazing experience" and a "strong cultural exchange."

Sophomore Chris Swecker said he is looking to do something different and would be happy to go out west, but specifically, "Oklahoma to get a chance to work with Head Start kids."

Obviously, since a little less than 80 students showed up to fill only about 60 spots the policy for who gets what spot operates on a first-come, first-served basis.

Even though some may have seemed like they spent their entire day on the cold linoleum of Wilson Hall, Esbenshade said, "students were able to sign in and out to go to eat, classes and meetings and still retain their original spot in line."