American college students will be the rave in the western resort of Negril for the rest of this month. Excessive partying and drinking are expected to be their main forte during their annual stress reliever, spring break.

Montego Bay gets its share of yeasty visitors too. However, a group from James Madison University in Virginia is quietly making a big impact in the western city in a far different way.

For the second year running, James Madison University students will spend their spring break in the company of Montego Bay’s mentally ill. Every morning, the 12 students will trek to the day centre in Brandon Hill, where about 20 clients converge for treatment and just a bit of the human touch.

The centre is the headquarters of the Committee for the Upliftment of the Mentally Ill (CUMI) which seeks to provide mental care on a continuing outpatient basis.

The spring breakers who visit admit that they are more concerned about this side of Jamaica. Call them the Alternative Spring Breakers. One student was so impressed by her visit last year that she decided she had to be back this year.

“I wanted to come back because I enjoyed it so much last year,” said Ann Cappelli, a third-year psychology major from Reading, Pennsylvania. “Seeing them (the clients) grow so much in a year is so rewarding because it’s more than what I would have expected.”

The venture began after an innocuous visit to CUMI’s website by an enterprising student who shared the information and idea with schoolmates. The rest, as they say, is history, with several more wanting to get on board.

Kendra Knoll, a third-year business management major particularly wanted the Jamaican experience.

“I heard lots of good things about Jamaica and I enjoyed a similar program in the States last year,” said Knoll, who says she’s ready to start recruiting others for next year’s trip.

Students spend the late mornings into early afternoons with clients. They engage in card and domino games as well as singing sessions. For a week, they complement the five-member staff who care for the mentally challenged clients, many of whom have been classified as street people. Among the clientele are two former street dwellers who were unceremoniously carted off the Montego Bay streets in the dead of night and dumped near a mud lake in St Elizabeth nearly five years ago.

The students actually represent the school as they have to present a thesis to school officials before gaining approval for the trip. However, the school does not provide funding.

“We ask family and friends for financial support,” says Knoll.

Like last year, Chatham Cottages dropped the rates to accommodate the students’ budgets.

Jamaica may be fashioned as a party destination for college students but these alternative troopers were making no such plans while in the island.

“We party enough at home. This is my week to focus on service,” says Cappelli. “We prefer to experience the locals and their culture. This is Jamaica like it should be experienced.”