news

Boston students go the distance for Triangle Foundation

College students part of national efforts for Alternative Spring Break

By Crystal A. Proxmire

Originally printed 3/19/09 (Issue 1712 - Between The Lines News)

DETROIT - A dozen Boston University students plus one chaperone traded in traditional spring break fun for a week's worth of community service at the Detroit-based Triangle Foundation. They were part of Alternative Spring Break, a program that gives students the opportunity to go places and gain experience working in a number of different non-profit areas.

This is the first year that students have come from out of state to participate in ASB at Triangle. The students from Boston University faced a 14-hour ride in a cramped van to make it to Detroit. In the coming weeks, another group will arrive from The University of Florida Miami. Triangle Foundation has hosted groups from The University of Michigan several times in the past, including a group that came in February.

Finance and Marketing major Anne Hetherington is the program manager for ASB at Boston University, organizing 32 trips around the country for groups of students hoping to help out with such great causes as HIV/AIDS awareness, animal rescue, homelessness, health and LGBT issues.

"People were camped out over 30 hours before registration began to get the trips they wanted," Hetherington said. "This was my first choice, and I'm so happy I got to (work with) Triangle. Being able to lobby for a bill was a great experience I wouldn't have gotten on any of the other trips. Plus I didn't realize the high instance of hate and crime against GLBT people here, and how different things are. Here we have to come to work in an unmarked building, and I've met so many people that say they can't even hold hands in public. I didn't expect that in a big city like Detroit. It's nothing like that in Boston."

According to Triangle Foundation's Youth Initiatives Coordinator Brett Beckerson, ASB activities are set up to show students the difference between the atmosphere on most college campuses and the prejudices and ignorance that trouble gays in mainstream society. "Students get the impression that there is a lot of knowledge and acceptance because most college campuses have a strong community presence," he said. "We send students out into the areas off campus to do surveys about LGBT issues so they can see how little most people really know or understand."

In addition to surveys, the students spent their week doing other community service activities. On Monday, they had an orientation and focused on doing basic office tasks. On Tuesday, they traveled to Lansing to meet with representatives and to get a tour of the capital from Governor Jennifer Granholm's assistant Lindsay Huddleston. They also handed out information about Matt's Safe Schools Law, which Triangle and other organizations are lobbying to have passed so that children can be free to go to classes without fear.

On Wednesday they learned the art of cold calling for donations. They also organized the resource area of the office, made booklets about hate crimes, and went for breakfast at Avalon Bakery to meet the lesbian owners and learn what it is like doing business as a lesbian couple in the Detroit area.

Then it was off for sightseeing in the city along with some community surveying on Thursday and a day at Affirmations Community Center in Ferndale on Friday spent interacting with LGBT youth.

The trip ended Saturday night with the students helping to set up for the Michigan Lesbian and Gay Comedy Fest in Dearborn, and getting to see the show. Then they piled into their tight-packed van, much closer now as friends and advocates, and drove off into the night to bring tales of Michigan pride and struggle back to Boston.

"I'm so glad I came to Triangle. It's very different than other ASB trips," said Electrical Engineering major Elena Pliakas. "Other trips were more tangible, like building houses or doing tasks for people that need help. This was more about learning how to educate others and taking our experience back with us. We got to see how much legislation needs to be passed for things that seem like common sense, and to know that we still have a lot more we need to work for."

For more information on Triangle Foundation visit http://www.tri.org