Cal Corps - Alternative Breaks Newsletter

Welcome back to your campus community! How will you continue to serve?

Alternative Breaks Cal Corps Public Service Center

Spring 2012

The Power of Us 140 students, 3000+ service hours, 50+ community partners and faculty members, and almost $50,000 raised – what a year!

This year, as we’ve both grown and strengthened as a program, we’ve had a number of great achievements!

Here are a few highlights:

Alternative Breaks participants clear tarp out of a Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools garden. Taken by Andres Orozco

Chancellor’s Award for Public Service ASUC Green Certification! This year, our Alternative Breaks Green Team worked closely with the ASUC to get our Green Certification, marking us as a student organization that is taking measurable steps towards environmentally‐minded sustainability!

Offered a record 10 trips to 116 participants!

Front page at the Berkeley Newscenter! (http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2012/04/10/alte rnative‐breaks‐slideshow/)

Chancellor’s Award for Public Service Alternative Breaks was awarded the Student Group Award for Civic Engagement for embodying the proud tradition of public service!

For more information:

http://publicservice.berkeley.edu/serviceawards

Participants reflect!

Assembled by Emily Loh, Alternative Breaks Communications Director 2011-2012

Alternative Breaks visits Drakes Bay Oyster Farm This spring break, the Food Justice & Sustainability trip returned to the the Lunny family’s Drakes Bay Oyster Farm in Inverness, CA to expose participants to local and sustainable aquaculture.

The Drakes Estero has been in commercial oyster production for nearly a century. During that time, the surrounding area became what is known today as Point Reyes National Seashore. With these protected lands nearby, Drakes Bay Oyster Farm

Each orange bin takes sixteen 80 lb sacks to fill.

Farmworkers in the Central Valley earn $14 per bin.

Taken by Jessica Lin.

operates at a rigorous standard of French pipes offer a substrate sustainability, stewardship, and for oysters to latch onto. integrity over their farm. Drakes Bay practices many methods to recycle material, minimize ecosystem disturbance, and enhance the environment around them. Its oysters also have innate benefits for the ecosystem. Each oyster can filter about two gallons of water per day, keeping the Drakes Estero waters clean and encouraging the local seal population to breed.

Besides the sustainable farming methods of Drakes Bay Oyster Farm, the Alternative Breaks participants gained insight on positive externalities of the farming operations. 40% of California's oyster market is provided by Drakes Bay, and without that supply, oysters would likely be imported from overseas. Drakes Bay Oyster Farm not only supports the local economy and food system, but also employs about 40 families from the local community, some of whom were born on the farm and have strong ties to the waters and business.

This informative coastal tour involved participants in an in‐depth conversation about food systems, environmental impacts, economic demands, and labor.

Currently, the Drakes Bay Oyster Farm is tied up in a legal battle to renew their federally approved lease to harvest oysters in the Drakes Estero. You can learn more at http://www.drakesbayoyster.com/.

The Barona Museum The 2012 Campo Kumeyaay trip gained a new community partner in the Barona Cultural Center & Museum. It is the first museum in the San Diego area to be run and operated on a Native reservation. The Barona Cultural Center is dedicated to preserving and presenting the Southern California Kumeyaay‐Digueño culture and contains more than 3,000 artifacts along with interactive displays with language, songs, photographs, and paintings that depict ancient Native American life. The displays are created with the direction and consultation of the community, and even highlight present day leaders and recent history of the Barona reservation.

Museums and history books often speak of the history of Native Americans in the United States, but this museum is a representation of a community reclaiming the right to tell its own story.

Casa del Migrante Just across the border that divides San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico, Casa del Migrante waits to take people sent back ‘on the other side’ to a home where they are given warm food, shelter, and humanitarian services. At Casa del Migrante, migrants also receive clothing, shoes, first aid services and help to contact their relatives either in the United States or their native country.

The San Diego Tijuana Alternative Breaks participants served at Casa by painting four hallways in the four‐story home, which provides shelter to over 200 migrants. These hallways hold the dreams, despair, hopes, sweat and tears of migrant men.

Rogelio, originally from Guerrero, Mexico, lived in Whittier, California before he was deported with his entire family. His hope is to return and offer his daughter the college education she deserves. The dreams of Rogelio reflect those of thousands of migrants who cross the border in hopes of offering a better life for their family. Instead, thousands have been separated from their family and sent back to a country that is now foreign to them. In Tijuana, Mexico Casa del Migrante seeks to alleviate the pain and suffering these men face when they are left only to look back at the family they have left behind. To learn more and donate to Casa, click here.

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Participants Reflect

What did you do during your spring break?

Kari Miller, Environmental Justice 2012 "My greatest take away from the Alternative Breaks Program is an increased awareness of how I interact with a given community. I am now confident collaborating with a wide spectrum of people and organizations regarding controversial or difficult issues. I like the idea of experiencing classroom topics first‐hand and have gained a more in‐depth understanding about how I can be a part of current social issues."

Animal Welfare feeds chickens at Sanctuary One, a farm in Oregon that uses farming methods as therapy for animals, people, and the environment.

Ryan Williams, Animal Welfare 2012

At Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services, Cat Hall and Emily Truax bag kale for distribution.

"I’ve realized there are issues everywhere violating social justices that can use my help as well as my voice to carry on their fighting chance. Not one particular part of this trip outranked the others; every aspect was necessary and satisfying. From mucking a sty, to cuddling cats, and walking dogs, to providing creative enrichment for chimps, to telling a story, this trip brought me perspective on the vast opportunities to connect the greater community and social injustices. A part of this trip that will stay with me forever is the understanding that your ambition is out there.

Know that whatever it is you want to do is there; you just have to go find it. I became empowered knowing there are people all over willing to help and opportunities waiting to be recognized. The experiences and relationships gained during my trip will never

Environmental Justice hauls weeds to a dump truck at a historical site in the SF Presidio to beautify neighborhood and communal spaces through local involvement.

Pay it Forward!

How will you stay involved in your community?

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Get involved! Find a community organization that interests you and serve long‐term! The Cal Corps Public Service Center has amazing resources!

2.

If you are currently a Cal alumnus or will soon graduate, consider hosting a dinner for an Alternative Breaks trip in your location to stay in touch!

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be forgotten and the realized opportunities never gone."

Daisy Villafuerte, San Diego‐Tijuana 2012

Stephanie Byun files a metal frame for a greenhouse at Petaluma Bounty Farm to grow seedlings in the windy climate. Taken by Danielle Ngo

"Going into the program, I was expecting to have this really amazing, REAL engaged scholarship experience. What I didn't expect was the incredibly deep and personal connection with every person I came across on the trip."

Many of our young alumni continue to support our vision. Any donation goes a long way! Give to the Alternative Breaks Fund! Click Here!

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Thanks And See You Next Year!

Thank you for being a part of Alternative Breaks this year, whether as a community partner,

an advisor, a participant, a leader, or an alumni dinner attendee! Special thank you to all of the wonderful businesses that generously supported our trips throughout the week, especially GM’s generous sponsorship for two trips’ transportation! See you next year!

You can still stay involved in Alternative Breaks!

Join our Facebook page (click!) or LinkedIn group (click!) to stay updated on our organization’s activities in the coming years, or e‐mail altbreaks@berkeley.edu to get on our alumni mailing list, where you will receive newsletter updates twice a year and an invitation to join an Alternative Break for dinner in your area!

A Note from your Finance Director and the Green Team: "To make our program more sustainable, we certified our first All Community Meeting 'Green' through the Office of Sustainability by serving a 100% vegan meal and utilizing reusable utensils. In addition, we created a Food Infographic focused on sustainable and ethical food options, partnered with a local cookie dough company that offered organic options for our annual fundraiser, and had each trip establish a Sustainability Plan to reduce individual trip impact. Collectively, we have also made an effort to reduce our waste by reusing recycled paper, communicating electronically, and publicizing on social network sites. We hope to continue improving our efforts to not only reduce our impact, but also be a better advocate and partner for environmental justice."