The day before I left for my Appalachia service trip in Portsmouth, Ohio, I definitely wasn’t what you would call excited. I suddenly realized that I wasn’t getting a spring break at all. All of my friends were either going somewhere warm or heading home to rest and catch up on sleep. I was doing neither. I honestly considered dropping out and going home instead, but thankfully, I decided to give it a shot.
The trip was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. I’ll be the first to tell you that I was skeptical about things like “Appa love” that I had heard about around campus. It just seemed like one of those things that people said because they were supposed to. However, I am now in “Appa love.” My 19 group members and I spent so much time together that we were bound to become close. We learned how to construct floors and walls, got a tour of Portsmouth and Shawnee State University, and cleaned out an old garage that was so run down it had a “Warning” notice on its door. Along the way, we all became friends, thrown into new and unusual situations that we will probably never experience again. These experiences—be it hard work, unnerving incidents, or a slew of hilarious moments—kept us up late into the night as we talked about the day.
I joined Appa in hopes of helping a family who had fallen on hard times, and when I met the family we were building the house for I knew I would be making a difference. The gratefulness we received from the single mother, her children, her parents, and the community was proof that the short amount of time we spent working on the house was well worth the 14-hour bus ride.
My participation in Appa not only changed someone else’s life – it changed my life as well. We met a group of Shawnee State University students and one day during lunch we had a discussion about Portsmouth. One of the students told us about a major problem in Portsmouth: pill mills. Pill mills are doctors, clinics, or pharmacies that give people prescription drugs in exchange for cash. Since a lot of people in Portsmouth don’t have access to insurance, it’s difficult for doctors to make enough money, forcing some of them to resort to selling drugs for cash. These pill mills make prescription drugs more accessible and, as a result, many people become addicts. One of the students told us that one in ten babies in the county (Scioto County) is born addicted to drugs. Think about that number – it’s astounding. I was floored by what I was hearing and I’ll never forget it. The same student also told us that the best thing we could do to help would be to spread the word about the pill mills, which was one of the things that stuck with me when I came back to BC. For this experience to really have an impact on my life, I need to remember it and keep it alive.
So if you get the chance, I strongly recommend going on Appalachia or some other sort of service trip – it will open your eyes. This was an experience I will remember the rest of my life, which is more than I would have been able to say about a week of “relaxing” at home. I can honestly say I have no regrets.