For those of you about to embark on a quest of superiority with us, here’s some information about our trip to the Bronx Little Sisters of the Poor! We are so excited to have you all on board.

If you’d like to know more about your coordinators Sam Martinelli and Bree Potter, check out this link: http://buasb.com/bronx-lsp/2012/11/01/greetings-from-the-cocos/

Travel Plans:

We will be traveling by public transit (bus) to New York and from there find public transportation to the Bronx. We will not be making any stops on the way and our trip will likely go for about 5 hours. There is no long van ride and we will not be renting out any vehicles from BU. Keep in mind that we will be traveling through public transit and should be mindful of the fellow passengers around us.

Packing List:

-Keep in mind that the Bronx is still COOOLLLLDDD in March, so make sure to bring warm clothing! e.g. jackets, hats, gloves, scarves, layers, warm socks

-Enough clothes to wear for upwards of 9-10 days. We will be leaving on Saturday, March 9th and returning Sunday, March 17th, so make sure you have enough clothes for that much time.

-Sister Raymond (our site contact) has requested that we all dress “respectfully,” meaning no short skirts, torn jeans, obscene shirts, or dirty/wrinkly clothing. Don’t wear anything you wouldn’t want to wear around your grandparents!

-We will be provided with beds with mattresses to sleep in. However, it is necessary for us to bring our own pillows, sheets, linens, etc. You can substitute these things with a sleeping bag if you wish, as long as you have something warm to sleep in!

-Towels/toiletries. We will have showers at our housing! (just make sure to bring shampoo and soap)

-Any kind of medicine/medical treatments that you might take daily are important to bring along with you!

-Bring a small amount of money, just in case. Normally, volunteers pay for their dinner on days of travel (Saturday, March 9th).

-Do not bring large electronics (e.g. laptops, matter transporters)

Service–Little Sisters of the Poor:

Little Sisters of the Poor is a worldwide non-profit organization with locations all across the globe. LSP is dedicated to servicing and helping poor elderly men and women. Little Sisters of the Poor is one of the oldest Catholic organizations in the world (but, just to be clear, this trip is NOT a religious trip by any means). Our location is a shelter for elderly people where they provide housing, food, and care. Our service might include helping out in the kitchen, various administrative jobs, groundskeeping, and interacting socially with elderly residents. We do not have a day to day run-down of all of our specific responsibilities just yet, but our days will likely involve the previously mentioned jobs. As soon as we find out more, we will provide updates.

In addition, our hours will be from 9:00AM to about 3:30PM Monday-Friday.

Sites and Attractions!

We have yet to plan which fun outings we will do, but here is a list of possibilities:

-Bronx Zoo

-Tour of Yankee Stadium

-Trip to Times Square

-Broadway show?

-30 Rock (go to the TOP OF THE ROCK)

-Metropolitan Museum of Art

-MOMA

-Natural History Museum

We can’t promise anything just yet, and many of our decisions about what fun outings to do will be a gametime decision so everybody can have a say about what we’re doing!

Travel Schedule:

Saturday, March 9th – Depart Boston in the morning

Saturday, March 9th – Arrive in New York in the afternoon, take public transit to the Bronx!

Sunday, March 10th – Touristy things in Bronx/Manhattan (TBA)

Monday-Friday – Service from 9-3:30

Saturday – More touristy shenanigans!

Sunday – Depart Bronx, NY for Boston!

PLEASE PLEASE take the time to read A Letter from our Wonderful Program Managers as well as the ASB Code of Conduct!

Hello again! We hope you guys are SUPER STOKED about the Bronx trip! Only about 3 1/2 weeks away!!!!!!!!!!!

We hope that you all are getting ready (emotionally and mentally) for our week of awesome service in New York City, plus some sweet sightseeing!

We wanted to take a minute to tell you about some other great opportunities that the Community Service Center has to offer you:

-BU Afterschool: Afterschool gives students the chance to make a real difference in the lives of youth all over Boston. You will work as a tutor for students of all age groups ranging from nursery school age to high school age. Sites include public schools and after school programs (e.g. Boys and Girls Club of Cambridge) all over the Greater Boston Area. Whether you want to help teach math, language skills, social studies, or anything, BU Afterschool is a truly great experience and great chance to make a real difference.

-Children’s Theater: Like kids? Like acting? Like being silly once a week? Then Children’s Theater is just right for you! You get in groups of 5-10 students and create a fun, educational play to put on for afterschool groups all over Boston. Once at these sites, you perform your show and get the kids active with fun theater games and activities. It’s a truly amazing experience and I would highly recommend it. Although applications will not be accepted at this time in the semester, I encourage you all to pursue Children’s Theater next semester.

-Student Food Rescue (SFR): Student Food Rescue is the largest student-run food salvage program in the country. It involves collecting food from bakeries in the Greater Boston Area and delivering them to homeless shelters once a week. The amount of food donated by the bakeries is phenomenal and the homeless shelters are always extremely grateful. SFR is still looking for volunteers for the semester, both van-trained (or willing to be van-trained) and not van-trained. At the moment, some runs have no volunteers at all, which is a shame because that means a lot of food goes to waste. Check out the SFR website to see which runs are still available for the semester.

ALSO we wanted to remind you all about Pre-Break II, which will be on Tuesday, February 26th in the Conference Auditorium at the GSU (walk through the student lounge next to Metcalf). We hope to see ALL OF YOU there!!! P.S. This one will be even better than the last one!

BRACE YOURSELVES:

Hello again!

First of all, I wanted to thank those of who you registered for ASB this year! You all made the right choice and I guarantee that you will have the time of your life.

Also, thank you to those who registered for Bronx-LSP! Bree and I are so excited to meet you and get some solid community service done with your help!

Remember, kids: THERE ARE STILL SPOTS OPEN FOR BRONX LSP. If you haven’t registered yet, please feel free to register. In addition, there are other trips that still have spots open for y’all:

-Baltimore, MD

-Goshen, IN

-Harper’s Ferry, WV

-Hartford, CT

-Kincaid, WV

-Missoula, MT

-Orland, ME

-Philadelphia, PA

-Reading, PA

-Stone Mountain, GA

Don’t forget to register!

In addition, we have finally been able to contact our site, and I was able to speak to Sister Raymond! She’s very excited to have us there to help out, and she told us a few important things:

-Volunteer hours: 9:00-3:30

-Possible volunteer work (still to be finally determined): Kitchen work, maintenance, taking residents on outings, housekeeping, and office work

We’ll keep you all posted if we get any other updates. Until then, thank you for registering, and if you haven’t, there’s still time! GO REGISTER!

And now I will leave you with a cat:

So just in case you missed the memo, registration for ASB 2013 is NOW OPEN! We still have some spots left, so in case you haven’t registered already, you should go right now and sign up for the Bronx LSP trip. Cos we’re the coolest. But don’t tell the other trips. They’ll be jealous of our coolness.

And lets face it, no one is leaving their rooms today (or if you were planning to, you should probably think again) to venture out into the snow, so what else is there to do but register for ASB!

And just in case our premature-winter cabin-fever registration-excitement induced ramblings haven’t convinced you, here’s a picture of  really, ridiculously cute kitten:

Now go register!!!!

Peace!

Hello everyone!

This will be the last blog post before registration WHICH IS TOTALLY HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND AHHHH!!! Remember: Saturday, December 1st at 8:00 AM. I will say it again in caps.  SATURDAY, DECEMBER 1ST AT 8:00 AM!!!!!!!! Remember, there are 39 trips to choose from, all of which are super awesome! Just remember that Bronx LSP is the best trip, of course. But we won’t be too hurt if you register for another trip. If you have any problems, questions, or concerns, there is a page where we answer FAQ’s for you.

Also, if you read this post today, you’ll know more about tonight’s Night of Trivia and Talent at 9PM in BU Central! There will be prizes (gift cards to chipotle and Otto pizza), free food, and live performances by some of BU’s finest e.g. Tanner, Sean and Carlos, and Frank & Dependent!!!

ALSO: we have more meal donations! We will have fooooooooooooood!!!! Here is what we have so far:

-Sam’s Mom and Dad

-Sam’s Childhood Babysitter

-A workplace friend of Sam’s Mom

-Cherry Valley Deli

-Meal vouchers from Bree’s mum (mom?)

We have contacted our site and have confirmed that we are in fact volunteering at Little Sisters of the Poor! We’re still waiting on volunteer hours and specific service work we will be doing. But, rest assure, we will find out this information soon and it will be awesome!!!

That’s all from us for today. We will close this post with a poll of what you think is the cutest animal with a stuffed animal:

1. 

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Leave a comment with your favorite picture (with the corresponding number) or send us an even cuter animal picture! The best ones will be featured in our blog post next week!

DON’T FORGET TO REGISTER!!!

-Sam and Bree

Hello all you possible volunteers! First of all, thank you to all who showed up to the ASB Info Fairs! We were really happy to meet all of you and tell you all about the awesome trips we have in store for you. DO NOT FORGET: Registration for Alternative Spring Breaks will be on Sunday, December 1st at 8:00 A.M. So, whatever trip you decide to go on, make sure that you get up bright and early to choose! (We all know you want to do Bronx-LSP, of course!) Make sure you sign up on time to do one of 39 super awesome trips!

In the week before registration, there will be a screen by screen explanation of the process on the buasb website, so you won’t be completely dumbfounded by the process itself. JUST A REMINDER: YOU CAN ONLY REGISTER FOR ONE TRIP. If you don’t get your first choice (obviously us), don’t worry! There are so many awesome trips on the list.

We have been in contact with our housing site manager, and we have some updates for you:

-As we have said before, everyone will have beds and access to showers.

-We have to bring our own bedding and pillows (or a sleeping bag)

-2 beds per room

-We have access to a kitchen, so we will be likely purchasing groceries for breakfast and lunch, and we are still working on getting dinners donated.

BU has a long-standing positive relationship with this site, so we hope to continue to bolster the CSC’s good reputation in the Bronx.

Also, follow BU ASB on twitter for more updates! @BUASB #leggo

Or (just as well) follow the two best co-cos on twitter!

Bree: @runbree

Sam: @satchmobum

We’re still working on getting in touch with our site contact, but keep checking in for more information coming up!

Peace out y’all

Sam and Bree

Hello everyone! Just an update:

Bree and I are currently working on getting meals donated so that our volunteers can eat! So far, my lovely parents (Greg Martinelli and Lois Leatherman) have volunteered to provide dinner for us one night. Bree’s mother, in addition, will be providing food vouchers for us on another night. Beyond that, we are still searching for meal donations.

In addition, we are also contacting our site manager about housing. We will be sharing housing with the Bronx-Junior Achievement of New York ASB trip. Word on the street is that our housing situation will provide us all with beds and showers as well.

Just a reminder: next Tuesday and Wednesday evening is the ASB Info Fair! Come to the GSU Backcourt from 6:00PM-7:30PM to learn all about all of the 39 super awesome trips our volunteers will embark on in March. But, let’s be real here, y’all already know that Bronx-LSP is the way to go. Either way, please come to the info fair next week to learn about a lot of amazing volunteer opportunities!

Anyway, we’ll be getting back to all of you soon with some more awesome information. Until then, see you later!

-Sam Martinelli and Bree Potter (aka the realest of the real Co-Cos)

Hello Everyone! We are Sam and Bree, aka the coolest people you could ever wish to meet. We’re the Co-cordinators for the best ASB trip of 2013, to the Bronx NY, to work with Little Sisters of the Poor. This is our first official post, check out our profiles to learn a little more about us (because why wouldn’t you want to know more about us!). Here’s a sample of our profiles:

Sam: A Jack of all trades, Sam enjoys basketball, guitar playing, and reruns of Full House. If you ever need someone to do a Chewbacca noise, Sam will be there at the drop of a hat. He’s incredibly excited to go back to his hometown of New York to give back to the rich community of the South Bronx by coordinating a volunteer trip to Little Sisters of the Poor.

Bree: Bree is from Middle Earth. But really, she hails from the small blip in the middle of the pacific ocean, otherwise known as New Zealand, home of hobbits, Flight of the Conchords, and many, many sheep. Bree loves running round in circles, so much so that she runs Track and Cross Country for BU. Bree is very excited to discover and work with the community of the Bronx, and to have the best Spring Break in history.

Watch this space for more info coming soon, about the coolest ASB trip that ever was or will be.

Peace!

Welcome to Alternative Spring Breaks Blogs. This is your first post. You can edit or delete this post and start making this trip blog your own. We will show you more on how to use WordPress in coming workshops, but for now, explore the site! Also, don’t forget to add an “About” and “Contact” page so your volunteers and prospective volunteers can contact you if they need to.

Love,
Alys and Bethany