Notre Dame College students give back

A group of Notre Dame College students recently dedicated their spring break to helping others. Students with varying majors spent a week working with Habitat for Humanity in Birmingham, Alabama.

This was the second consecutive year that Notre Dame juniors Anna Benko and Sarah Tolson took the trip.

“For spring break we could be doing a lot of other things, but you don’t think of it as hard work,” Benko said. “It can be exhausting, but you are doing it for other people and for a good cause.”

Throughout the spring break immersion, the Notre Dame group assisted Habitat for Humanity in new home construction and house rehabilitation for low-income residents. Birmingham is Alabama’s largest city and considered one of the poorest urban areas in the U.S., with about 29 percent of its population living in poverty. That is nearly double the 15 percent poverty rate for most municipalities in the country, according to the news release.

The Notre Dame students and staff work about seven hours each weekday on tasks that ranged from caulking to roofing to installing windows and doors, and even adding insulation, the release also states.

“It’s a good opportunity to get away from what is known and to see a different reality, to look at different perspectives on life,” Tolson said.

“You learn to focus not on differences, but on commonalities, just treating people as people.” —Notre Dame College junior Sarah Tolson

“You learn to focus not on differences, but on commonalities, just treating people as people.”

Meanwhile back at the college in South Euclid, some Notre Dame accounting majors are offering free tax preparation to residents in need.

These undergraduate students operate the free service center on campus, voluntarily filing federal and state income tax forms for low-income individuals and families.

The students, who have been trained and certified by the Internal Revenue Service, operate the tax preparation center in

the College’s Regina Hall Room 202. The service center will be open throughout the tax season, the release said.

Services are available from 2:30-5:30 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. The center will be closed March 29 and 30.

To be eligible for the free service, taxpayers must have a qualifying income that ranges based on household size.

Clients must make an appointment to have their taxes prepared by calling United Way’s 2-1-1 First Call for Help, which is a nationwide phone number to dial for assistance with health and human services. Capacity limits at the site are dictated by the number of students offering

their services.

Participants must bring a current photo identification; Social Security cards for each adult and child listed on the return; all tax documents, including sources of income like W-2 and 1099 forms, for the filing year; support for any deductions and credits sought; health care verification; the prior year’s tax returns and bank account and routing numbers to arrange direct deposit of any refund.

Those filing jointly must both be present for forms to be processed electronically.