While most college students spent their winter break visiting friends and family, partying, or traveling to exotic beach or ski resorts, a group of eighteen college students and their sponsors, who are members of Memorial Drive United Methodist Church in Houston, did something completely different. They volunteered two days of their Christmas holiday to remodel the Discovery Club facility located in Galveston.

The Discovery Club is the after-school and summer camp component of the Galveston Project for the Education of Homeless Children & Youth, an educational support program for students (and their families) who attend Galveston Independent School District. As many as 80 students at all grade levels go to this large, metal building for a variety of academic enrichment activities after school and during the summer. While staff did all they could to make it an attractive, homey place to be, it still was a large, metal building.

According to Claudia Koch, a social worker who directs the project, the group painted, plumbed the sink, made storage shelves, constructed a wonderful reading corner, and created some fabulous hand-painted banners and hung them. Ms. Koch said, "I cannot express how they transformed an old garage and made it warm and inviting for our students. They worked consistently; I never felt they needed direction from me-they just did it!"

After the group completed the project, Ms. Koch profusely thanked them before they moved on to do work at "Our Daily Bread," a day shelter in Galveston that provides a place where homeless people, primarily single men, can find refuge from the streets. Ms. Koch stated that after they left, "I stood in the room alone and cried. We so often see the worst side of humanity, but seeing these young people give their time and energy to make our students an environment that is suitable and comfortable was outstanding! The facility now reflects our children's spirit-bright, beautiful, creative, nurturing, and fun!"

The students who worked on the project were Adam Back, Mark Bogart, Daniel Brookheart, Lee Deleon, Clayton Garrett, Ashley Hamilton, David Marquez, Danny Millikin, Jeff Shaddis, Matt Smith, Erica Soper, Austin Tally, Eric Vanderbilt, Kelly Vanderplug, and Jeni Wischnye. Their sponsors, who worked tirelessly, were Sedonia Finstad and Steve Cragg.