KENTUCKY—From June 24-July 2, a group of 42 students and chaperones traveled to Neon, Kentucky for Notre Dame’s 26th annual Appalachia trip. While in Kentucky, the group worked with HOMES, Inc., a group committed to building residential housing and providing low-interest mortgages for residents of this coal-mining community. Notre Dame has worked with HOMES since 2000 (with the exception of two years spent in West Virginia).
On this year’s service trip, the group of 29 students and 13 adult chaperones were assigned to one of three work sites. Projects included building a porch, to demolition, to insulating a crawl space, and painting the interior of a house to ready it for a new family. One group built an access ramp for a couple whose grandchild is wheelchair bound. The group worked daily from 8 am until 4 pm and spent Wednesday visiting Breaks Interstate Park. The trip again proved to be a tremendous success as one of Notre Dame’s longest traditions carried on. To read Mr. Cipriano’s daily blog entries from the trip and see plenty of picture of the group at work (and play), click here.
Trip participants included: Tony Addorisio, Margaux Atkins, Gabe Bitencourt, Meghan Burke, Colin Burke, Emily Carlson, Audrey D’Amico, Arianna DeNitto, Andrew Fallon, Will Fiore, Grace Gallagher, Karen Garza, Andrew Jones, Vanessa Joseph, Olivia Keden, Mary Keden, Alex Lucke, Sydney Manzo, Mary McGuire, Patrick Milner, Eli Nuzzo-Dozier, Aryanna Ogando, Tyler Ouellette, Katelyn Pond, Andrea Quiles, Chris Restaino, Jack Rohr, Teresa Salamone, Livia Silva.
Chapereones included: Geissy Bitencourt ’12, Dan Bosco, Chris Cipriano, Joanna Cipriano, Katie Collins ’03, Dan Combatti ’03, Rich Combatti, Paul Marzik ’10, Brian Mezzapelle ’10, Eleni Stefanatos ’10 and Shaun Wrinn ’08.
The 2018 trip will take place from June 23 – July 1, 2018 and is open to sophomores, juniors and seniors. A meeting for interested students will be held in early October.