College students spend spring break helping flood victims in Conway, Socastee

CONWAY, SC (WMBF) - While many college students around the country are spending their spring breaks partying, vacationing and having fun, a group of 18 college students from Wisconsin’s Ripon College are spending theirs helping rebuild homes destroyed by flooding from Hurricane Florence.

The group of students is teaming up with Samaritan’s Purse Disaster Relief to destroy and rebuild homes this week in Conway and Socastee.

They spent Monday working on a home on Long Avenue in Conway.

While some might look at what the students are doing as incredible, they believe it’s simply the right thing to do.

“To me, it’s just kind of second nature,” sophomore Nick Tonn said. “It’s just something that’s good to do.”

The private school also sent several students to Texas last year to help victims of Hurricane Harvey.

Campus Minister Mandy Kimes said it’s likely the students will get more out of the experience than the people they’re helping.

“We just wanted to help,” Kimes said. “We knew that this would be a good way to spend our spring break, that we would go home and have even better stories than any of the other students at the college we’re at.”

The students are staying at Timberlake Baptist Church. They’ll continue working on homes in Conway and Socastee for the rest of the week.

Copyright 2019 WMBF. All rights reserved.