Like many University of Wisconsin students, junior Lindsay Taylor spent time at the beach last spring break. Unlike other UW students, Taylor visited a beach in Galveston, Texas, to help local community members fix their homes after Hurricane Ike damaged the city.

Taylor is one of hundreds of UW students who have participated in an Alternative Breaks trip planned by the Wisconsin Union Directorate’s Alternative Breaks Committee.

After 20 years of sending student volunteers to cities throughout the country, committee members invited students to celebrate the anniversary with cake, balloons and games Monday night.

As a student-run committee, Alternative Breaks plans service trips for UW students during winter and spring break, placing responsibility on the students, said Director and UW junior Ali Loker. These trips send students across the country to address specific issues and serve community needs.

“It’s about going outside your comfort zone and bonding with other students at the same time,” Loker said.

After they return, students further their experiences through continued service in Madison.

Most students return with a greater understanding of issues outside of the student community and often use the word “eye-opening” to describe their experiences, she said.

Since 1990, when the first Alternative Breaks trips traveled to Immokalee, Fla., and San Juan, Texas, the structure and mission of the committee has changed little, said Susan Dibbell, assistant director for programs at the Wisconsin Union.

“We don’t just go on the trips, what we really encourage is education,” she said.

Despite little change in 20 years, Wisconsin Union Communications Director Marc Kennedy said UW was among the first in the country to offer a service trip of this kind.

“It was a pioneering program at the time, only a few other universities had it,” he said.

Alternative Breaks provides an opportunity for students to “expand their horizons” while traveling to places they would not go to otherwise, such as a reservation, he added.

At the kickoff meeting, committee member Tia Nowack answered questions and shared stories with interested students about her trip to the Grand Canyon last spring.

“You work, but you also get to play,” she said about her experience pulling out shrubs, putting up fences and working at a ranch.

With high student interest and about 10 students participating on each trip, Nowack said trips are competitive, requiring an application process.

Each year, about 200 students participate in an Alternative Breaks trip, Loker said.With limited space for each trip, students fill out applications with essays and references, and faculty members and union staff choose students for the trips.

Even though the basic premise of the program has remained the same since its inception, interest in Alternative Breaks continues to grow, Dibbell said.

She said committee members are ready to experiment with new things and have proposed international trips as an idea.

One immediate change is the addition of a new mascot for the next 20 years.

As students filed out of the “birthday party,” Alternative Breaks members asked them to vote on small slips of green paper for the mascot.

“AltBreak Aardvark” was the first on the list.