Making a difference hundreds of miles away.

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) Giving back to the community is a great way for students to build character and responsibility while also making a difference.

But when it comes to sacrificing their vacation many might turn away.

That’s not the case for a group of spring breakers from Illinois.

“Once you come down the first time it kind of gets addicting it’s so much fun that you just wanna keep coming back,” said Christopher.

For 24 years students and alumni of Rockford University in Illinois have made the trek down to Starkville during their spring break.

Their mission – to partner with Habitat for Humanity and give back to those in need.

Durham was part of the first build and has worked on a total of ten homes since then.

“We decided we wanted to do something, something different. It’s our spring break time, and we were like, ‘hey we could stick around here and do a spring break here or we can kind of just venture out and do something fun.’ So we were part of the volunteer service group, and so as a bunch of volunteers we were just like all right instead of just going and going to the beach lets go and do some volunteer work, so we picked Starkville,” said Durham.

Each year more and more people get involved with the project, and alumni even come back to lend a helping hand.

“By leaps and bounds we started off with nine students when we first started coming down, and just over the years we’ve grown,” said Durham.

This year’s team has 19 members, including 13 students.

The week of service gives them a chance to learn new skills and meet new people.

But the biggest reason they keep coming back is the need to help people.

“They’re not wanting to do maybe the status quo thing on their spring break, and when people come back they are going to say, what did you do? Oh, I relaxed, oh I went to Florida, we went to Mississippi and built a house that’s a really a differentiator for them and are able to think their spring break was memorable,” said Alex Johnson.

“I like to get involved in the community are used to work at a summer camp, and we did a lot of volunteer work I’m a teacher, so I just try to change the world a little bit every day,” said Wendy Hegbom.

The crew will be here through Friday.

They hope to get started on the roof of the build before packing up.