Shovels replace beach towels for Spring Break

College students joined other LIVE-IT volunteers to build hope. Miami University students from Oxford, Ohio spent their Spring Break volunteering their time to help LIVE-IT Ministries build a 3 bedroom house for a Gatlinburg fire victim family. Instead of partying on the beach or snowboarding like most college students, this group of academics from Miami University spent time slogging in the mud to dig a drainage ditch and nailing down floor boards.

Local LIVE-IT Volunteer, 15 year old Lauren Morgan happily described the event as, “We are rebuilding a house pretty much. It’s got good bones but it didn’t have any upstairs floors or anything like that.”

The house that was donated to LIVE-IT will be used to house a family that lost everything in last November’s firestorm and have no resources to rebuild without the help of donations and volunteers.

Miami University Student Coordinator, Crystal Ford explained, “This is the first ever opportunity for us to branch out in volunteerism and service. To be able to bring our students here, to be able to help rebuild, and give families who have lost everything a since of hope and to give them a home is very powerful to me.”

The group of 11 international students from the China, Ghana, Iraq and the United States came together as strangers but left as a team of friends. “Jay”, a student from Ghana, summed it up best when she said, “We chose to help humanity – together we can.”

If you would like to learn more about LIVE-IT, you can visit their website at: www.helplliveit.org.