Jessica Bendzick/Winonan

For many, spring break means sunny beaches, hot sun and white sand. For Melissa Van Grinsven and Shawnessy Mohawk, this year’s spring break meant something different: leadership.

Each of the women entered a photo into the nationwide “Lead the Break” contest. This contest encouraged students to show how they spent their spring break as a local leader within their community.

Van Grinsven’s submitted photo captured her and her friends’ time volunteering for Feed My Starving Children, a non-profit Christian organization. Volunteers like Van Grinsven hand-packed healthy meals for malnourished children. Once packed, the meals were shipped to more than 60 countries around the world.

She said, “Thirty-nine children are going to be fed for one whole year because of the hour of packing I helped partake in.”

The event Van Grinsven participated in took place at her local church back home. She said she has volunteered for this organization a few times in the past, so when she heard they were going to be at her local church, she jumped at the opportunity to help pack meals again.

The time volunteering passed quickly since Van Grinsven and her fellow volunteers made a competition out of the day. They created teams and raced each other to see which team could pack the most bags in an hour.

Shawnessy Mohawk, health educator and health and wellness advocate club co-adviser, also volunteered her time over break. Her “Lead the Break” submission was a picture of a “Hello, Beautiful” Bedsider t-shirts, a health and wellness program at Winona State.

Mohawk said Bedsider serves as a useful resource for students to learn about their birth control options, to better manage their birth control and to help avoid pregnancy until both partners are financially and emotionally ready.
Winona State University is the only campus in Minnesota with a Bedsider program.

Over the duration of spring break, Mohawk and Winona State’s Bedsider group planned for events and programs coming up on campus. They created educational materials to raise awareness about available contraceptives and promotional materials to engage student attention about getting tested for STDs.

The “Hello, Beautiful” shirts will be given out as prizes at the Bedsider events.

Over break, Mohawk found out she was selected to represent Winona State’s Bedsider at a regional conference in Charleston, Ill., at the end of March. She spent part of her spring break researching what she is going to present at the conference.

The Health and Wellness Advocate Club encourages students to submit a spring break photo to Instagram with the hashtag #LeadtheBreak and #WinonaState.

The contest goes through the end of April. Students who submit a photo are entered in a drawing for the chance to win an Apple MacBook Air or an Apple iPad.