Picking up sticks, building vegetable gardens and painting benches. Spring break for students from the University of Iowa is full of manual labor and chilly weather.
"We are on a volunteer trip with "Students Today and Leaders Forever," said sophomore Michelle Greif. "Our ultimate goal is Washington, D.C."
Toledo is their second stop on the six-city tour.
All of their hard work will help St. James Lutheran Church and Nightingales Harvest.
"What a great pay it forward program," said Lisa Kronbach-Eisenbach, founder of Nightingales Harvest. "I mean this is the first time I've ever heard of it. Very excited."
The non-profit provides cancer patients and their families with healthy food and other necessities.
The gardens will give families fresh vegetables.
To keep the trip exciting, students know where they're going, but none of the volunteers know what type of service they're doing. Breona Carroll, a sophomore and bus-core leader on the trip said, "So, they are always excited when they get to their sites."
The students might have known where they were headed, but they didn't know where they'd be sleeping and neither did Kronbach-Eisenbach.
She got a phone call 24 hours before the students arrived at the church.
"We had a blast," said Kronbach-Eisenbach. "They were sleeping in the chapel. Sleeping in the gym. We only have two showers. So, 42 kids were going up and down stairs for 42 showers.
She was moved to tears by the students' dedication to service.
"It's unbelievable! To come all the way from freaking Iowa... it's just, it's a blessing."
A blessing students say is just their way of helping others.
The students' next stop is Erie, PA.
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