Mission Trip Offers Students Chance To Help Others In Need
BY NANCY GAGNET — MIRROR REPORTER
A group of high school students from St. Paul’s Episcopal Church spent one of their first weeks of summer vacation fixing up homes for impoverished residents in Beattyville, Ky.
“It was tiring work but in a good way,” said Jennifer Repka, who will start high school in the fall.
Eleven members of the senior youth group along with three adult chaperones boarded a conversion van on June 13 to make the three-hour trip to Beattyville, which is located in the southeastern part of the state.
Youth group leaders Todd Deye and Stace Torio along with Rev. Paul Board, church pastor, also went on the mission trip.
Through the Kentucky Small Farm Project, a co-op organization that helps residents in that area, members of the youth group spent four days working to install insulation and siding, replace a bathroom floor and paint five interior rooms of a home.
“We were focused on getting the job done,” said Jordan Torio, who recently finished her freshman year at Maumee High School.
Jordan said the residents were accommodating in moving the furniture to the center of the room so they could get started with the paint job.
“We wanted to do a good job for them. Watching their reaction was completely worth it,” she said.
Her sister Madison, an incoming MHS freshman, agreed.
“It was good to help other people,” she said.
Their mother Stace said it was important to make a difference in the lives of those in need.
“I always tell the kids that if you have an ability to help or make something better, then it’s your Christian responsibility to make something better for someone else,” she said.
According to the 2000 census, 41 percent of the population of Beattyville lives below the poverty line. The town has little industry other than a state prison, said Rev. Board, which makes the residents there – population 1,000 – greatly in need of help.
“To get the kids out of their element and expose them to poverty they are not used to seeing was an important part of the trip,” he said.
Although poverty exists close to home, he believes getting the kids away from their comfort zone was an important part of the experience.
“By leaving the city and state, the kids are away from their family and friends to help folks who really need it. My hope for the kids is they make lasting friends, appreciate the many blessings they have in their own lives, and develop a sense of charity and stewardship towards others,” he said.
It took two days to put siding and insulation on one of the homes, which will reduce the large heating bills the homeowner was having trouble making, Rev. Board said.
Allie Prybelski, who worked on that project, was one of many who had never swung a hammer before the trip.
“It was fun. I was surprised that I could do it,” she said.
Dustin Adkins, Tyler Deye and Cory Richardson, who recently completed their freshman year of high school, replaced a bathroom floor with the help and guidance of youth group leader Todd Deye.
“It was rotted so bad you could break right through the floor,” Dustin said.
The homeowner, Katie, a diabetic, spends most of her income on medicine and could not pay to have the floor replaced, Rev. Board said.
“We obviously made a difference there,” Cory said.
Tyler agreed: “It felt good to help.”
Youth group members, the church and individual donations helped fund the trip and a portion of the money was also used to buy the supplies for the construction projects, Rev. Board said.
For Nicole Gagnet, the trip made a lasting impression for the things that are part of the everyday routine.
“Overall, the experience showed what we take for granted every day – it made me appreciate more what I have,” she said.
Before heading back to Maumee, the group took time to have fun on the New River in West Virginia, where they went whitewater rafting.
Rev. Board said the experienced offered the youth an opportunity to grow in their faith.
“I am blessed by watching the kids grow and develop spiritually. Church becomes real when they experience real people with real hurts who love God in the midst of real struggles,” he said.
Other youth group members who participated on the trip included Gabrielle Gwin, Christian Spore and Eric Weber.