The packing lists are out, the final meetings have been held and midterms are almost over. Essentially, everything is set for the beginning of the 22nd Alternative Spring Break.

The participants of one of the 36 groups will not be going to their original destination, however.

Due to a sudden escalation in gang and drug cartel violence along the U.S.-Mexico border, the "A Dios Le Pido" site in Monterrey, Mexico, had to be canceled 10 days before the 11 participating students were supposed to leave to go work with Caritas de Monterrey to aid the impoverished community.

"Monterrey, Mexico, was actually a site we were really excited about," said ASB Co-Chair and senior Mike Putnam, who was disappointed in having to cancel the site. "... The service there was very good historically and we'd had a couple successful trips, and it was basically a place we wanted to continue working with."

According to Putman, the area had become too dangerous for students to go to. There has been general unrest in the area a couple years, but Putman said when the site was planned in May 2008, the region was no more dangerous than locations frequented by other service groups.

The weekend of Feb. 14-15, however, the violence sharply increased as the drug cartels paid townspeople to protest against the police force and the Mexican national army that was brought in response to the cartels' takeover of the town. The confrontation resulted in the assassination of the police officer in charge of the investigation and his family.

After parents of site participants and one of the site leaders expressed concern over the safety of the site location at the beginning of the semester, Putman said the organization brought the situation to the attention of the administration. Up until that weekend in mid-February, he said both ASB and the administration thought the group would still be able to go to Monterrey. Once they heard of the sharp increase in violence, however, it was decided in conjunction with the Vanderbilt International Office that it was in the participants' best interest not to travel to the area.

Putnam said within an hour of making the decision, an emergency meeting was called to explain the situation to the group members and efforts to replace them on different sites were underway. Of the 11 participants, nine were replaced within a few days. The other two elected not to participate this spring break.

Putman said the group members were very flexible during the replacement process, and he thinks most were pleased with the result.

"We were able to offer them almost half of the sites, and some of the best ones, too ... Almost all of them got their first choice, which is really exciting," he said. "... I was glad we could accommodate them as close as possible."

"A Dios Le Pido" was one of two international ASB sites this year, in addition to one in Xela, Guatemala. Putnam said despite the issues that arose with the site in Mexico this year, ASB's policy about international sites has not been affected. In fact, he said he hopes the organization will expand its out-of-country service options in the future.

"I'll be personally recommending that they go back to Primeros Pasos (the site in Guatemala) for sure. There are sites in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic in particular that I think would be worthy places to go," he said.

Putnam said although the cancellation of the site in Monterrey was unfortunate, he is happy with how the situation was handled.

"It was a very unfortunate circumstance, but it ended up working out very well. A lot of the people who ended up going other places got the site that was in their top couple the first time around, and they all got sites that they're very excited about. ... All of ASB is a bit stronger now because of (the Monterrey participants) going to sites that had one missing or so. It's great; it feels good to have every site full," he said.