For many college students, spring break is a time for lying in the sun, partying all night and getting wild. But for a group of 35 UW-Eau Claire students, spring break might be more meaningful this year.

The organization Habitat for Humanity plans to travel to different locations throughout the country to help build homes for people. In order to fund its trip, the group will be selling nails and collecting donations.

The organization will be selling the nails from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. today through Wednesday in Davies Center. It plans to sell the nails for 25 cents each and also are accepting donations.

The money raised by the organization will go toward the local affiliate fee it must pay to the local chapter in the city it will volunteer in. It also will be used to pay for food, lodging, gas and van rentals.

This will be the first time the organization has had this kind of fund-raiser. In the past, it has had Christmas tree sales and relied mainly on donations.

Some of the students will be going to Fayetteville, N.C., and others will be going to West Palm Beach, Fla. The students will drive 15-passenger vans to their destinations and stop to do some sight-seeing on the way, senior Jennifer Ebert said.

When the groups arrive, they will spend their eight-hour work days making frames for houses, putting up drywall, painting and doing any other work that needs to be done on the houses. The students will have their evenings free and one day off to sightsee.

“Habitat for Humanity has been amazing for me,” said Ebert, who has taken trips with the organization in the past.

Ebert said she was amazed to see how the people were living before.

“The places they lived in were one hundred times worse than where I keep my car,” Ebert said.

Although the students will be spending the majority of their time working on the houses, they also will have the chance to meet some of the locals.

In the past, local church groups have provided lunch or dinner for the workers. The workers also have been able to have dinner with the family they are building the house for.

“I felt the people there were very appreciative of what we were doing,” said sophomore Amanda Sines, an officer in the organization who went on one of the trips last spring break.

Sines said she felt good about helping other people, but that her time there was not enough.