Every time the graphic images flashed across the television screen, Barrett Jones’ heart ached a little more.

He wanted to help, wanted to do something, wanted to make a difference.

On the football field, that had always come easy for Jones, a Freshman All-America guard last season on Alabama’s national championship team.

But this was Haiti, a country that had been rocked by a massive earthquake. The destruction was beyond imagination. The suffering was unthinkable.

“It will take years to build everything back,” Jones said. “The least I could do was give up a week.”

So after more than a month of planning and raising money, Jones takes off for Haiti on Saturday along with a couple of his friends from Alabama for a spring break trip he knows he’ll never forget.

Going with him are Hardie Buck, a walk-on receiver at Alabama, and friend David Gannon, a student at Alabama. They’re all three actively involved in the Campus Crusade for Christ Ministries.

They will spend the week working with orphaned children and distributing supplies at a camp for IDP’s, which is short for internally displaced people.

They will eat beans and rice, maybe a little goat meat, and there’s no such thing as seconds. They will sleep in tents. That is, what little sleep they get.

“It’s not the Ritz-Carlton, and there’s no beach,” Jones said. “We’ll be working all day, every day. We’re not going there to have fun. We’re going there to help people who need help.

“There will be plenty of other opportunities for me to hang out on the beach and have fun, but opportunities like this are rare. This is something I feel like I was called to do.”

The Crimson Tide will begin spring practice later Friday afternoon, but will be off next week for spring break.

Jones will fly out of Atlanta on Saturday and into the Dominican Republic. Flying into Haiti is sketchy right now because the airport is constantly opening and then closing again.

The earthquake’s epicenter was just outside Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital.

The relief camp where Jones and his companions will be working is located in Pignon, a town closer to the Dominican Republic. To get there, it’s a 13-hour drive, and about half of that trip will be in the back of a cargo truck over grueling terrain.

The dust is so bad that you have to wear dust masks. But it’s also the rainy season in the mornings, so ponchos are a must.

“It’s probably not what a lot of people think about when they think of spring break, but I can’t wait,” Jones said. “I’ve been thinking about doing something like this for a long time. This came along, and I knew it was right.

“I’ve had so many good things happen to me in my life. I wanted to be able to give back in some way.”

The trip wouldn’t have been possible without the help of Roy “Soup” Campbell, who’s the executive director of Eikon Ministries in Memphis.

Campbell has already been to Haiti 25 to 30 days this last month on relief missions and was the person Jones’ grandfather, Harry Smith, reached out to in an effort to get Jones pointed in the right direction. Campbell said he would do more than just help. He's going back to Haiti with Jones and his buddies.

“Anybody with a heart like’s Barrett who wants to go serve in that capacity … I’ll do whatever I have to do to get them there,” said Campbell, a former baseball player at Memphis State back in the early 1980s.

Campbell knows the lay of the land in Haiti. He took a group from his church, Fellowship Memphis, a week after the earthquake hit.

On this trip, they will be working in conjunction with Hosean International Ministries, a Haitian missionary organization that was founded by Caleb Lucien.

“They told anybody that wants to come out of Port-au-Prince that they will feed them, give them medical attention, put their kids in school,” Campbell said. “The first time I was there, there were about 62 people there. Now, that school has 1,400 students.”

Because so many children lost their parents after the earthquake hit and witnessed so many horrible things, many of the kids in the relief camp are still struggling emotionally.

“You’re starting to see some happiness and laughter with these kids, and Barrett will help build that,” Campbell said. “Because of his age, he’ll be able to connect with these kids quicker than me. They don’t get to see somebody as big as Barrett [6-foot-5, 300 pounds] every day in Haiti.”

And while football will always occupy a very important part of Jones’ life, it’s something that will be put on the backburner as soon as the Crimson Tide step off the practice field Friday afternoon.

“There’s just such a need over there, all those children separated from their parents,” Jones said. “It’s a new perspective on life. We all think we have it bad some days, and then you see people who really have lost everything.

“This is a trip that will change my life forever.”