Spring break starts Saturday, March 11, at West Virginia University .

While many students are planning vacations to exotic destinations, others are taking their time off to aid Hurricane Katrina relief efforts in the Gulf Coast .

Fourteen studentsmembers of Christian Student Fellowship, a nondenominational campus ministrywill spend a week repairing shingles and dry wall and doing yard cleanup at three homes belonging to elderly people in Pass Christian, Miss., northeast of New Orleans .

For the past four years, Christian Student Fellowship has gone on mission trips to Mexico during spring break.

We usually go to Mexico and do this sort of stuff, but we decided this year, it was more important to help with Katrina relief,said Sarah Moore, a WVU freshman communication studies major from St. Albans .I always wanted to go on a mission trip, but more importantly, I want to help people in my own country who are suffering.

The Rev. Sandy Bigelow will accompany the group.

Students will take off from Christian Student Fellowship ( 2901 University Ave. ) at 4:30 a.m. Saturday, March 11, and return to Morgantown Sunday, March 19.

They’ll travel by car and make an overnight pit stop in Auburn , Ala. The trip is expected to take about 18 hours each way.

We’ll camp in a yard of one of the houses and have access to showers,Moore said.

A second spring break trip to the Gulf Coast was organized by Campus Crusade for Christ.

About 45 WVU studentsmostly Campus Crusade for Christ memberswill take charter buses to New Orleans for the week.

The group is joining forces with Habitat for Humanity to rebuild damaged homes, prepare meals and clean up debris.

Students will stay in the 9 th Ward at Light City , a now-vacant warehouse that has been fixed and painted since the hurricane.