Students Spend Spring Break Serving
More than 220 Westmont students and three dozen community volunteers are spending their spring break building homes, running medical/dental clinics, competing with local sports teams and leading vacation Bible schools. This is the 30th year for Potter’s Clay, the student-organized service trip to Ensenada, Mexico. The week-long trip begins Friday, March 9, and the volunteers return Friday, March 16.
Students Gordon Aeschliman and Dave Dolan founded Potter’s Clay in 1977 when they decided to “give to the Mexican people through service, evangelism and material donation.” Succeeding generations of students have kept this mission alive.
“Although the purpose of the trip is service, it is not about saving the less fortunate people of Ensenada,” says co-leader Matt Marinkovich, a Westmont senior. “The giving and receiving goes both ways for everyone involved.”
To celebrate the 30th anniversary, the mayor of Ensenada is throwing a city-wide fiesta on Wednesday, March 14, for the local citizens, the Westmont teams and the local churches Potter’s Clay has partnered with over the past 30 years. More than 5,000 students and hundreds of community volunteers have participated since the inaugural trip.
Santa Barbara resident Lloyd Johnson has volunteered for 10 years as a contractor with Potter’s Clay. He spends the week building houses and other construction projects with students.
“I work harder that week than any other week of the year,” Johnson says. “I get to use every skill and gift I have. I love it. I’m pretty much signed up for life.” The local finished carpenter works with Solid Rock Construction to put fine details Santa Barbara homes. He is one of 11 contractors and 30 doctors and dentists who will contribute to Potter’s Clay this year.
The teams not only build homes but form relationships with the families who will live in them, exhibit sportsmanship and camaraderie on the athletic field, and get a glimpse of Mexican culture.
A group of 13 students organizes the trip and dedicates an academic year to Potter’s Clay, taking several trips to Mexico to prepare for the week.
While students are there, they stay in tents most of the time and spend two nights in the homes of members of local churches.