The Spring Break Journey of a Lifetime
4/25/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball, Features
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By Ben Cronin
Over spring break I had the privilege of joining 28 student-athletes on an urban immersion service trip to the inner city areas of Orlando, Fla.
There were 20 of us from Michigan, six from Concordia and two students from Eastern Michigan. Many of us are a part of a campus group called Athletes in Action, which is a faith-based organization for student-athletes. Athletes in Action is present on more than 100 college campuses and works in a total of 60 countries all over the world. Of the 20 of us from Michigan, we had members of the football, field hockey, volleyball, cross country and men's and women's soccer teams participate.
We left on the Friday, Feb. 25, before the week of spring break, as we had to get a good start on our long drive to Orlando. When many people think of Orlando, they think of Mickey Mouse and Disney World, but there is a different side of Orlando that most tourists will never see or even think about. That is the side of Orlando we were going to get to see.
Seeing the City
We served with a group called "Here's Life Inner City" that worked out of a church in Orlando. They set up our group, as well as a couple other college groups from around the country, with the work sites and other service opportunities.
On Sunday, Feb. 27, we visited some of the poorest inner city churches and met our service leaders. They took us on a tour around Orange Blossom Trail and showed us some of the sites that we would be working. Everyone from the Michigan group was split up so that there could be some of us at each service spot. This was great because I could not help out with everything, so at least hear about what everyone was doing at their site.
My group did not know very much about what we were going to do, but the director of Urban Immersion asked us if we could bring down some basketballs, soccer balls or whatever we could get our hands on for kids to play with.
The Poverty, Abuse and Addiction
One of our groups served at the Orange County Academy in Bithlo, Fla., an extremely poor community plagued with many problems that cause the cycle of poverty, abuse and addiction to continue.
There is a 60-percent illiteracy rate in this area. The high school dropout rate is more than 50 percent. This community has severe poverty, while the children growing up there are often abused and live with family members who have drug and alcohol addictions. The group came face to face with this sad reality, and saw the impact these factors had on the children's abilities to learn in the classroom.
Another group was at a work site called Living Hope, a ministry focused on working to help women who have faced sexual assault or have been recently released from jail get back on their feet.
This group did a variety of services throughout the time there, such as raking leaves and trimming bushes. It was amazing how much a small amount of work really went a long way to help some of those people out. You could just tell how appreciative they were to see some kindness in their lives.
We also had the opportunity to hang out with and serve the homeless community around Orange Blossom Trail. It was eye opening to hear the stories that put some of the people in the situations they were in.
Many of them did not know when they would have their next meal, but they were still trying to help each other out and share whatever they had. It was very humbling to see people who did not have much of anything share the little they had because they cared about the other people in their community. When it came to food and clothing, they never took more than they needed.
When some of the homeless left, it was sad to see them pulling out extra shirts to put on because they knew it would be cold that night and they needed to find a way to stay warm. It made me think about all of the clothes that are sitting in my closet that I may never wear again -- someone could use those.
100 New Little Michigan Fans
I spent most of time in the Tymberskan neighborhood.
Tymberskan is a small development that was once closed off to try and clean up the drug and crime rampage that was taking over. Unfortunately, that did not last too long as the security box was smashed in and the gates were broken.
A few of the people in the neighborhood told us that many cops even refuse to patrol the neighborhood and that we were brave for working there. We took this to heart when a car with undercover police officers pulled up next to some of the athletes in our group and strongly urged them to get out of the neighborhood. Even with the warnings, we got over the nervousness of being somewhere different than what we were used to.
We interacted with many of the people in the neighborhood and told them that we were doing an afternoon activities program for the kids in the neighborhood. Many warmly welcomed us and thanked us for offering our time. We headed to a small court in the middle of the neighborhood where we found one basketball hoop and an even surface to play on.
There was so much glass on the court that a few of us swept for about an hour to get most of it off the playing surface. We did not know how many kids would come or if they would at all, but when we pulled out all of the basketballs and soccer balls and started playing, we slowly saw children emerge from around every corner.
Before we knew it, there were at least 50 children hanging out and playing a number of different games with us on that first day. There were children from ages 3-16, and thankfully we brought a ton of fun stuff to occupy children of all ages.
Throughout the three days we were there, we played soccer, basketball, football, four-square, hopscotch, as well as blew bubbles and even played Candyland. What generated the most excitement amongst the kids was when we blew up balloons for them. They loved the balloons!
We had so much fun hanging out with these kids; we got to know just about all of their names. Many of them had a lot of stress in their lives and were dealing with things that most of us could not relate to. Just occupying their afternoon with basketballs and chalk to play with really gave them some enjoyment.
They kept telling us that we had to stay and could not leave on the last day, and we did not want to either. We had been having so much fun. After those great afternoons, I can honestly say that there are now at least 100 more little Michigan fans out there now.
These kids were so beautiful and we had the best time hanging out with them. I am so glad that "Here's Life Inner City" is going to continue to help these kids and their families.
A Lasting Experience
On the last afternoon before we headed back to cold Ann Arbor, we got to spend a few hours at Pebble Beach! Many of us guys got a good taste of how good our volleyball team really is when we got our butts kicked in some beach volleyball.
Overall, this trip was so much fun. Even though we did not get to go somewhere tropical or relax at home for our spring breaks, I think every person on the trip would do it again. We drove 20 hours and slept on the floor of a church, but the fulfillment of serving others and giving our time to help someone out was priceless.
We made friends from Concordia and EMU that we will have for a long time. We are so blessed that Athletes in Action and the University of Michigan gave us the opportunity to do a trip like this.
An amazing group of student-athletes gave their spring break to take this journey. When we got back into Ann Arbor, many of us went to serve food and hang out with the homeless community on one Friday evening. It is awesome to be a part of such a great university where we are equipped and encouraged to help and serve others. I think that is a part of the Michigan difference.
I would like the give a special thank you to the amazing staff of Athletes in Action: Colby and Sarah Keefer, Bruce and Diane Dishnow and Denise Hammons. I would also like to thank all of those who supported us and made this trip possible.
Go Blue!
