Abby Nadeau
Community Editor

They could have gone to Cancun, Mexico, Daytona Beach, FL or Cabo San Lucas for their spring break.

The group could have spent days on the beach soaking up the sun and their evenings in night clubs, drinking away their mid-term papers.

Instead a group of over 400 college students from across the country gathered at the University of Minnesota Campus to see an idea come to life.

In the group of 400 students were three Forest Lake High School graduates who have taken it upon themselves to ìPay it Forward.î

Laura Carter, Eric Larsen and Chelsey Tulgren, who are all students at the U of M, spent their spring breaks clearing out warehouses, fixing play grounds, painting and cleaning up one of the most polluted rivers in the United States.

The Concept

Pay it Forward is a world changing idea from the book ìPay it Forwardî written by Catherine Ryan Hyde.

In the book 12-year-old Trevor is given an assignment by his teacher to come up with an idea for ìworld change and put it into action.î

He comes up with the idea called ìPay it Forwardî and explains it to his mother and teacher.

ìYou see, I do something real good for three people. And then when they ask how they can pay it back, I say they have to Pay It Forward. To three more people. Each.

ìSo nine people get helped. Then those people have to do twenty-seven.

ìHe turned on the calculator, punched in a few numbers. ëThen it sort of spreads out, see. To eighty-one. Then two hundred forty-three. Then seven hundred twenty-nine. Then two thousand, one hundred eighty-seven. See how big it gets?íî

Based on this idea, four students at the University of Minnesota founded the Students Today Leaders Forever nonprofit organization.

STLF is an organization that was founded with the ìidea of organizing a spring break ìPay It Forwardî tour.

The Tour

The tour consists of gathering students, loading up buses and traveling across the country, visiting one city each day.

While in each city, the students work on some sort of service project for that community.

Once they are done with that city, they move onto the next one, completing a service or project each day.

At the end of the week all the buses meet in Washington D.C. to work on one last project and discuss the trip as a whole.

Students from the University of Minnesota, North Dakota State University, University of North Dakota, U of M Morris, Bemidji State,

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Moorhead and St. Thomas University packed up 10 buses and traveled to Indiana, Massachusetts, Illinois, North and South Carolina and several other states.

Both Larsen and Carter were bus leaders on the trip.

Being a bus leader means figuring out which cities to stop at and which projects to work with while they are there.

Each bus would have its own theme, depending on the types of service projects they do.

ìOur theme on my bus was ëLetís get physical,íî Carter said. ìWe focused on more physical labor projects, something that takes a lot of man power.î

Carterís bus, U of M White, traveled to New York City, NY to help paint in an affordable housing development.

ìWe painted houses, cleaned up the area,î Carter said. ìWe dealt with family members who had a low-income and were medically fragile.î

Although Carterís bus focused on the physical aspect of community service, they dealt with a lot of emotional issues.

ìI talked with this little girl who was just the sweetest,î Carter said. ìShe was telling us how she had to go to the doctor. We didnít know it at the time, but she was HIV positive. It was a surprise to us because she talked about it so easily. It was just another doctor appointment, being HIV positive.î

While Carter was in New York, Larsen was traveling to Richmond, VA.

In Richmond Larsen worked with a group called Boaz and Ruth.

ìItís a program for ex-cons who have just been released,î Larsen said. ìThe program gives them job skills training, something to help them out, otherwise they wouldnít be able to get back into society.î

Larsenís group helped clear out a warehouse so it could be used as a future training facility.

Tulgren, a first year participant, was on the U of M Maroon bus that spent time in one of the most diverse schools in Atlanta, GA.

ìWe talked to the students about going to college,î Tulgren said. ìMost of them were just worried about getting their GED. Their dreams and goals stopped at their GED.î

Once the buses made it to each of their cities, they met in Washington D.C. to clean out one of the most polluted rivers in the U.S.

The Anacostia Riverís fish, which flow into the Chesapeake Bay, were once reported to have ìthe highest cancerous tumor rates ever documented in an American river,î by the Washington Post in 2004.

Over 400 students spent one afternoon trying to clear the river from at least some of the pollution.

ìWe put on waders, gloves and walked along the riverís edge to clear some of the debris,î Larsen said. ìWe found shopping carts in the mud.î

ìWe found things like needles and tons of trash,î Carter said. ìBut we also had to watch which things we threw away. Some people lived down there and some of their items were next to the river.î

When the group finished, they all gathered to hear Hyde speak to the group of students.

In the pamphlet STLF sends out, sheís been quoted saying ìSTLF is a wonderful example of Paying it Forward in action. Itís been great watching the studentsí efforts grow, and watching the ripple effect change lives and opinions. My hats are off to these young leaders.î

Beyond the bus rides and service projects, the trip almost means more to the participants, than the people being helped.

ìThere really is a special bond that forms between everybody on a bus that lasts beyond the trip,î Larsen said. ìWeíve definitely made some life long friends on these trips.î

For Tulgren, the experience was an eye opener.

ìI realized I was very naive, living in Forest Lake,î Tulgren said. ìIt was a very rewarding trip, but it was hard to realize those conditions are in our country. The whole idea is to make an impact on others, but it really made an impact on me.î

To learn about STLF or the Pay It Forward concept visit www.stlf.net or www.payitforwardfoundation.org.

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