News Article

In what has become a rite of spring at Gonzaga University, 131 students, staff and faculty advisers are preparing to embark Saturday, March 10 for eight sites nationwide where they will spend their entire spring break serving others through Gonzaga’s Mission: Possible program.

Gonzaga’s ninth annual Mission: Possible entourage, sponsored by the university’s Center for Community Action and Service-Learning, includes 120 GU students and 11 faculty and staff advisers. At a time when most students will be relaxing, these freshmen through seniors will travel to the following cities to lend a hand in a variety of projects important to communities: St. Louis; San Antonio; Browning, Mont.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Clarksdale and Jonestown, Miss.; Portland, Ore.; and Tacoma, Wash.

After eight years of the program, there are now nearly 450 Gonzaga alumni who have experienced Mission: Possible. Students run the program, motivate others to become involved and provide plenty of enthusiasm and inspiration.
Student coordinators are Brian Estes, Kristina Alnajjar, Tiffany Malcom, Rachel Potter, Ashley French, Louis Chen, Sarah Shean, and Melissa Garcia. The student volunteers and their advisers will work on projects including housing rehabilitation, painting, home weatherization, and other building repair initiatives. Also, they will perform service work at homeless shelters and soup kitchens, work in community gardens, and assist in other projects important to communities in those cities.

The students have put in long hours since last spring planning and preparing for this trip, which lives out Gonzaga’s Mission Statement that calls for loving service of others. The money to support the program came from fund-raising events, letters of appeal, student contributions and some university funds.

All students leave on Saturday, March 10 and return to campus March 17. The Browning group leaves by train at 2 a.m.; others have 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. flights; the Tacoma and Portland groups will depart in mini-vans at 9 a.m.

For more information, please contact Todd Dunfield, assistant director of CCASL, at (509) 323-6396 or Sima Thorpe, director of CCASL, at (509) 323-6856.