Dueling once spring break, students at James Madison University in Virginia participated in 15 “alternative spring break” trip to nearby states, three other to more distant part of the US, and five international trips. One groups of JMU student travelled to Bogalusa, Louisiana to help rebuild homes damage by Hurricane Katrina. Another group traveled to Mississippi to organize creative activities for children living in homeless shelter. One group of students did go to Florida, but not to lie on the sand. They performed exhausting physical labor such as maintaining hiking trails and destroying invasive plant species that threaten the native Florida ecosystem.