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CORVALLIS, Ore. - Sixteen Oregon State University students and two advisers are traveling to Livermore, Calif., on March 25 to spend spring break building homes with Habitat for Humanity.

This is the second year that OSU's participating in the "Habitat for Humanities Alternative Spring Break." For some of the team members, this is their second time involved; for others, such as Danya Rumore, an OSU team student trip leader, this is their first experience.

Funding the project isn't easy. Students pay all travel and living costs.

"OSU gave us most of the money we needed," Rumore said, "but we spent a lot of time trying to get local people and businesses to donate."

"To me this is about giving the entire community a chance to help and to get involved. When they support us, we help to support them by giving them our business, and using word of mouth to get as many people as we can to give them their business also. It strengthens ties to the community, and that is part of our goal."

Students, ages 16 and up, from high schools, colleges, church youth groups, and other clubs or organizations, in teams of five or more, volunteer to spend a week of their break participating in the Habitat for Humanity Alternative Spring Break Collegiate Challenge.

A Sandpoint, Idaho, native, Rumore is a junior at OSU studying environmental sciences, focusing on resource economics.

"It's very important to me that people understand what we're doing, and why we're doing it," said Rumore. "We're not out there giving people handouts. We're not helping people because we have more than they do. We're out there helping people because we really care."