A donation to MAB is the simplest way you can get involved with MAB today. We use fundraising to make our trips happen (50% of our trips’ funding comes from fundraising) and to provide scholarships to students with financial need. Our goal is to make these trips affordable to all Mizzou students. If you’d like to donate, please visit our Donate page. Make sure you say in the comments how you want the fund to be applied (scholarship or trip costs).

This could be a nice home-cooked meal, ordering them pizza or taking them out to a restaurant. Or getting your local alumni chapter involved in doing a potluck meal!

Finding a cheap or free place to stay on these trips is one of the most daunting tasks our student leaders face. Sometimes it is easy – one phone call and they’re set. Most of the time they have to call every church and non-profit in town to find something. You know the area you live in better than we do and have connections our students do not. You could provide recommendations on where to stay or ask friends if they have any connections to help find the students a place to stay for the week.

Our students are on these trips to learn about the communities and populations they are serving as much as they are to do the service. An alumni event gives a chance for students to get to know the area/issues better because they can hear directly from people in the community. Also, they get a chance to meet Mizzou alums and ask questions about life after college.

Some of our trips have to drive two days to get to their service sites. In these cases they are looking for places to stay one night on the way there and back (usually on either Friday or Saturday nights). All they need is a place to crash and get some shut-eye before heading out the next morning. One of our principles is “Be Gumby,” meaning be flexible and go with it. As a result our students sleep on couches, floors, and many other places on these trips without complaint.

Depending on how long the trips are serving they need a place to stay for a week or weekend (all weekend trips stay in Missouri). This is a big commitment and we know that. You’d be a rock star in the student’s eyes and we promise when they leave your house will be as clean as it was when they got there (or cleaner if you’d like).

If there’s something that you’d like to do for our students, but it is not listed, just let us know!

The Mizzou Alternative Breaks Alumni Board has three goals. First and foremost, its job is to select the recipient of the annual Active Citizen Award. This award is given to a current MAB student who has gone above and beyond in their quest to change the world. Second, this group helps to market the MAB Homecoming Brunch – an event for all MAB alumni the Sunday after Homecoming. Finally, the Board helps to coordinate fundraisers for our need-based scholarship program. Each board member is expected to contribute $200 to Mizzou Alternative Breaks annually. This contribution can come from a fundraiser, a direct donation, or donating your time and expertise for special MAB projects.

MAB’s records of who went on a trip only date back so far. Prior to 2009, we’re not exactly sure who went on a trip. In an effort to change this we’ve created the Alumni Tree Project. It is a simple survey that asks “Who was most influential in getting you to go on an alternative break trip?” You just put that person’s full name and contact information (if you know it) and you’re done. When we have enough responses, we’ll start to create a family tree of MAB.

We want to know your most memorable moments from your alternative break trip and how alternative breaks has impacted your life. We’re asking that all alumni send us either a video or a write up discussing those questions.

Each MAB trip blogs about their experiences nightly during the time they are away from campus. Our blog is a staple of the program now and is really worth taking the time to read. Different trips use the blog differently. Sometimes each post is a simple update on what happened during the day and other times the post is a heavy reflection on the work and community. To read our blog, click here.

Twitter is the best way to follow along with our trips. Each trip has a Twitter account and tweets about their adventures. You don’t have to have Twitter to follow either. All you need to do is click here and bookmark the link. If you want to follow us on Twitter, our handle is @MizzouBreaks.

Facebook is a great way to get updates about the program in general. We post about our students, trips, and more. Make sure to like us here: https://facebook.com/MizzouBreaks