Ohio State students travel to Pascagoula to give back

While some college students spend their breaks from school relaxing, a group of Ohio State students are choosing to spend their free time giving back.

They’ve traveled a long way just to give back: 872 miles to be exact. These students are from Ohio State University and for eight years in a row their volunteer group, Buck-I-Serve, has been coming to the Gulf Coast to volunteer during their school breaks. Student volunteer Brianna Cope said, “It’s important to serve the whole entire country because you can see the issues that are at home and you can help out there but it is a completely different story when you are traveling to the other side of the United States.”

One of the stops on their week long mission trip was the Pascagoula River Audubon Center in Moss Point. Andrea Belcher with the Pascagoula River Audubon Center said, “We need the community’s help to keep us looking good and running up to speed and so having college groups that are really energetic just helps us with that mission overall.”

The volunteers spent the whole day getting their hands dirty by cleaning the grounds, removing weeds, and moving some items around. Student leader Nicole Hopwood said, “We are doing some yard work and just getting all of the small steps out of the way so they can actually do the work and help the environment.”

These students took a 17 hour charter bus ride to come help the Gulf Coast and show a little Buckeye pride and even though they are Buckeyes, these students have a lot of love for the Magnolia State. “I’ve personally done this trip two times and think once you come down here and you are from a different state you just fall in love with it. Everyone has been so kind and the environment is so beautiful and different from Ohio. I don’t know why you wouldn’t fall in love with it,” said Hopwood.

If you would like to volunteer at the Pascagoula Audubon Center you can visit their website pascagoula.audubon.org for more information.