Departments
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Week of 26 February 1999 |
Vol. II, No. 25 |
Feature
Article
Hammers and hymnals
For some at BU, a different kind of spring break
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The BU Seminary Singers, conducted by STH lecturer Mildred Beane, have booked a full schedule of concerts in California during spring break. Above, they perform at Marsh Chapel as part of the January 18 Martin Luther King, Jr., celebration. STH Dean Robert Neville (top left) will join the tour. The Singers perform spiritual anthems at Marsh Chapel worship services every Thursday at 1 p.m. Photo by Vernon Doucette |
Instead of flocking to the shores of Cancun or snapping on ski boots, a portion of the University community will spend the March 8 to 12 academic hiatus comforting the sick, planting trees, pounding nails, and singing for their supper.
The BU Seminary Singers will be among those forgoing the more popular spring break pursuits. In a journey of spiritual fellowship, about 40 of the 50 vocalists will perform classical and multicultural works at nine Los Angeles and San Diego area churches, with an additional stop at the Claremont (Calif.) School of Theology. Food and lodging will be supplied courtesy of the parishioners.
It has been more than a decade since the seminarians last ventured beyond New England for a performance, but the road shows had once been an annual rite of spring. Fondly recalling his own days traveling with the choir, Rev. Frank "Lanny" Arrowsmith (STH'67) invited current members to revive the touring tradition with a visit to his parish in Vista, Calif. Rev. Earl Beane (CAS'63, STH'67,'68), School of Theology director of admissions, was glad to accept the offer from his former choirmate and longtime friend, and set to work booking additional venues.
Beane still sings with the group, while his wife, Mildred (SFA'64,'84, SED'95), conducts. Sean Recroft (STH'92), STH registrar, praises the harmony that conductor Beane is able to produce from the mostly amateur vocalists. "It's amazing," he says. "I'm in the second bass section, and I have no musical ability other than a deep voice."
Friends in need
Meanwhile, about 60 undergraduate students will
participate in the Alternative Spring Break (ASB), a
traveling volunteer program operated by the University's
Community Service Center. Six groups of students and their
faculty chaperones will assist an array of charitable
agencies and environmental cleanup efforts in Pennsylvania
and the Deep South.
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A student lends a hand in last year's
Alternative Spring Break program, whose
participants travel out of state annually to
perform community service projects.
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This is not Rakocy's first long-distance mission of mercy. Last March she went with ASB volunteers to a Tijuana, Mexico, shelter for teenagers who had been arrested at the Baja California border. Interacting with the poor and the desperate, she says, "really does change the way you look at the world."
In agreement is Rebecca Sansom (CAS'01), another repeat participant in the spring break program. Last year she journeyed to the distressed neighborhoods of Washington, D.C., to deliver food to people with AIDS. She recalls making a house call to a mother of four whose condition left her too weak to shop for groceries. "People at BU lead very sheltered lives," Sansom says. "We complain about things like not having hot water for a day. This really puts things in perspective." Now Sansom is helping to coordinate a trip to Atlanta, where students will perform further AIDS outreach work as well as volunteer at a nursing home, a children's shelter, and a community food bank.
Building homes, blazing trails
Two of the ASB crews will toil at Habitat for
Humanity construction sites in Norristown, Pa., and
Amarillo, Tex. The national organization enlists volunteers
to help low-income families build their own homes. Physical
labor is also on the itinerary of BU students packing tents
for trips to Bristol, Fla., and Georgia's Cumberland Island
National Seashore. The campers will spend the week at such
tasks as clearing trails and planting trees.
To save money, all the teams will travel by land rather than fly. But that only serves to enhance the camaraderie, notes Carren Smrstik (SAR'97), CSC program coordinator, who joined last year's mission to Florida City. "By the time you have driven 25 hours in a van with 12 other people," she says, "you get to know each other very well."