Rather than take part in a traditional spring break vacation on some tropical beach, a college student from Raymond chose to spend her break in New Orleans assisting victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Chelsey Conant, daughter of Gary and Patricia Conant of Raymond, is a junior nursing major at Endicott College in Beverly, Mass. As part of the rebuilding effort, she helped gut homes in preparation for a massive rebuilding effort.

“Operation Helping Hands,” Endicott’s partner for the trip, has worked with a number of groups during the last year. The program is sponsored by Catholic Charities and targets the most fragile of New Orleans’ former residents including the elderly, disabled and those without insurance. To date, 925 homes have been gutted and cleaned. An additional 1,500 homes remain on their waiting list, awaiting the labor of concerned volunteers.

Over the past three months, the Endicott group has raised funds and familiarized themselves with the geography, politics and current conditions of the Gulf Coast. The trip to New Orleans was designed to be as much an educational venture as a service opportunity.