While most college kids spend winter break hitting Florida beaches, Michelle Regan of Buxon hammered nails for Habitat for Humanity.

A junior at St. Michael’s College in Burlington, Vt., Regan got her tan doing roof construction. Joining nine other students and an adult on the trip in the college’s extended service program, she went to Immokalee, Fla., where she swung a hammer in 80-degree temperatures. Besides “tons of nailing,” she painted and installed windows on six houses for the needy.

Regan is the daughter of John and Bobbie Regan of Rankin Road in Buxton.

Regan described the area of her mission trip to Florida as a farming community, which produces oranges and cashews. Regan lived and ate with families housed in a homeless shelter, the Friendship House. She did chores, cooked and served meals for about 70 people, including migrant farm workers.

Regan befriended a woman who lived at the shelter and accompanied her for support to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. “It totally was an incredible experience,” Regan said.

Regan is majoring in art with a minor in gender studies and plans to earn a master’s degree in education. Regan hopes for a teaching career at the elementary level.

In the evenings of her mission trip, Regan taught children as young as 5 years old and helped older kids with their homework at a community center. She tutored Mexican and Vietnamese immigrants in English at an education center.

“It was incredible, and I learned a little bit of their language,” she said last week by telephone from St. Michael’s.

Regan paid $300 for her Florida airfare, and it marked her second mission trip as a student at St. Michael’s. Last year, she worked at a school in New Orleans.

Her sister, Amy, is a student at St. Anselm’s in New Hampshire and does similar mission work. As a senior, Michelle hopes to travel to Calcutta, India, to work in an orphanage founded by Mother Teresa.

“They have a passion for the work that Mother Teresa did,” said their dad about his daughters.

Michelle, who graduated from Catherine McAuley High School in Portland, was president of a campus ministry and an art club and was a member of the Key Club. She participated in local missions and volunteered at a soup kitchen in Portland. She serves as a creative arts coordinator at the YMCA camp at the Otter Ponds in Standish.

At St. Michael’s, she’s also continuing her education in dance that began at the Centre of Movement School of Performing Arts in Gorham. Regan studied ballet, jazz and tap dancing. Vicky Lloyd, director at the Centre of Movement, described Regan as a hard worker with a quiet humor.

“She’s a cool person and has marvelous ballet feet and legs,” Lloyd said.

Before Regan left for college, she presented Lloyd with a painting she created. It was a ballet dancer at a ballet bar and a teacher with angel wings. “I cherish it,” said Lloyd who has it hanging on a wall. “She’s quite an artist.”

Regan said the Gorham school did a lot of community service like performing for the elderly in nursing homes. “She’s small in stature but way big in heart and spirit,” Lloyd said.

Regan played an instrumental role in local church work. She helped launch a youth program at St. Anne’s Church in Gorham. At St. Michael’s, she attends church services daily on campus. “I love it,” she said.

Regan enjoys lending a hand to the needy. “I know there’s so many people in the world who need help,” she said.