Five students from Calvin College in Grand Rapids visited Three Rivers last week in one of nine service-learning ’spring break’ trips in an effort to help eliminate the college’s carbon footprint.

Beginning Friday, March 19th, about 100 Calvin College students traveled on wheels to nine locations in eight states to engage in service-learning opportunities.

Calvin students have been leading these trips for years, but this time they tried something new, choosing to have students drive, rather than fly to all nine locations.  Organizers say this change reduces Calvin’s carbon footprint significantly.  For example, a student’s carbon footprint driving to Galveston, Texas this year is $32.  Flying to that same location would multiply that student’s carbon footprint more than ten times over.

Rob and Kirstin Vander Giessen-Reitsma, Three Rivers residents who teach at Calvin, brought the Calvin students to the community.  In advance of the visit, Kirstin wrote, “Our theme is ‘Seeking the Welfare of the City,’ exploring and contributing to the assets of Three Rivers, and reflecting on what prayer and a rule of life have to offer to being actively engaged in the work of a community.  We’ll be working several of the mornings at Huss School and then having various adventures around the community in the afternoons.”

And that they did!

Rob and Kirstin are involved in *culture is not optional (*cino), the organization that has purchased Huss School in a redevelopment project called Imaging Space.  You can learn more about the students’ spring break activities in Three Rivers from the Imaging Space blog.  To visit the blog, click here.