Y-Serve Trips are now open for sign-up. Tuesday night Y-Serve held registration for Y-Trips from 9-10 p.m. in Common Grounds. During the event, Y-Trip leaders shared about their trips.

“All the leaders shared about their trips enthusiastically,” said senior Lydia Haggard, copresident of Y-Serve. “Some students signed up already, and more are seriously considering which of the awesome trips they want to choose!”

This year’s trips are with Mennonite Disaster Services (MDS), Alterna Community, L’Arche, and Sharing With Appalachian People (SWAP).

Black Student Union will also lead a Civil Rights Tour through important Civil Rights locations. Two states that the group will visit are Alabama and Mississippi.

Junior Reuben PeachyStoner and sophomore Josh Schlabach will lead the MDS trip to Fort Myers, Fla., where they will be doing hurricane-damage repair.

Staff member Otoniel Suero Escalante and junior Ariel Barbosa are leading the Alterna trip to LaGrange, Ga., where they will engage with immigration rights and immigrant families.

“We are going to a community where many of the people who live there don’t speak English, and English is not my first language,” Escalante said. “They need Spanish speakers and that’s who I am.”

Junior Emma Hoover will lead the L’Arche trip, where they will be living in a community house. L’Arche is an international nonprofit organization that supports people with intellectual disabilities. Senior Lydia Musselman will lead the SWAP trip, where they are preparing the service headquarters in Kimball, W.V.

Y-Serve continues to facilitate spring break trips due to the community’s desire to serve others. “The main reason why I decided to lead this trip is because as a Christian, I am called to serve and not to be served,” Escalante said.

“I am a leader with Y-Serve because service is a way to express my love for God and for others. I want to provide opportunities for other students to get involved in service on campus, in Harrisonburg, and beyond. Plus, the Y-Serve leadership team is fun to work with!” Haggard said.

Students can still register for Y-Trips until Feb. 12 in the Student Life Suite with either receptionist Emily Forrer or University Campus Pastor Brian Martin Burkholder.

Any questions can be sent to y-serve@emu.edu.