Wartburg students remove trees and other debris from the area surrounding a home destroyed in the Colorado floods.

More than 60 Wartburg College students are spending part of their Thanksgiving Break serving others with work focusing on affordable housing, flood relief and poverty.

Dan Kittle, the director for the Center for Community Engagement, said this is the first time Wartburg students have participated in Thanksgiving service trips.

“This is the first year the calendar has allowed us the opportunity,” he said. “As soon as students found out there was the possibility of this break being dedicated to service there was interest.”

The trips — most of which started Saturday, Nov. 22 and run through Wednesday, Nov. 27 — include:

• Rebuilding a disabled veteran’s home in Hartshorne, Okla.
• Flood relief in Denver, Colo.
• Working with the Cleveland Food Bank to raise awareness and alleviate hunger and poverty.
• Helping the poor through work at St. Vincent de Paul in East St. Louis, Ill.
• Working with inner city children and the homeless in Chicago.
• Receiving training to become members of the Community Emergency Response Team, a group of community volunteers who can assist in a disaster alongside emergency response agencies.

Each year, hundreds of Wartburg College students fan out across the country on more than 20 service trips that span the full academic calendar. For more information about the Wartburg Service Trip program visit https://www.wartburg.edu/cce.