Instead of spending their spring break in a dorm room or at the beach, more than 200 students from as far as Minnesota, Eastern Michigan and Delaware will travel to Tennessee this month to learn to build trail with the Cumberland Trail Conference.
The Alternate Spring Break Program (ASB) is a national organization that facilitates the opportunity for thousands of students from universities across the nation to do community service work in a part of the country that is new to them – allowing them to do good work while experiencing an area that they may not have ever visited otherwise.
“We have hosted the program since ’97, but it really started taking off in 2001,” says Tony Hook, general manager of the Cumberland Trail Conference. “Since we’ve started hosting students from the breakaway program, there’s been roughly 60 miles of trail built by the students.”
Each group of 10-12 students is assigned to a 400-foot segment of the Cumberland Trail and taught by volunteers, CTC staff and park rangers how to work together to build trail. “With this type of work, the best way to learn is to get out and do it,” says Hook. “When they leave they tell me they have a whole new appreciation for trails.”
After the work is done each day, the students have guest speakers and educational programs Trail Break I on diverse topics such as the early settlers’ use of wild plants and the unique flora and fauna of Tennessee.