This is not the path Colby Cavanaugh planned to take. The WSU senior was on track to be a public relations professional, but then everything changed.
"It just shook you," he says. "I was afraid for the people I knew that lived out there. I was afraid for the people I knew who had family out there."
Cavanaugh felt the shock of the Oso landslide all the way in Pullman. Forty-three lives were lost on March 22, 2014 -- an entire community wiped out.
Cavanaugh was raised in neighboring Arlington and knew some of the victims.
"It was very troubling, very saddening to see," he said. "Especially the young ones that we knew."
Now Cavanaugh and a group of volunteers from WSU are giving up spring break fun for something much more rewarding. They're spending an entire week serving the people of the Stillaguamish River Valley.
"It's been a little bit exhausting," he said."We're running on passion."
With the two year anniversary of the Oso slide just a few days away, WSU students are teaming up with various groups to perform community service throughout the valley. On Friday, volunteers from Snohomish County joined the group in restoring the Old Sauk trail outside Darrington.
In doing this work, volunteers are hoping to deliver a message to the community.
"The message is, 'we're still here,'" said Cavanaugh. "The recovery effort and the recovery process are not just a one and done kind of thing."
As for Cavanaugh, the slide truly was a life changing event. He changed his intended major from public relations to study emergency management, specializing in small towns. For him, it's a new trail to be taken, revealed by the continuing lessons of the Oso landslide.
"It gives you a sense of love that your community will always be there for you, and you will always be there for your community," he said.
Reporter Eric Wilkinson introduces you to the volunteers on KING 5 News at 5 p.m.
