Trinity WorkCampers Returned To A Familiar Location

To Aid Residents With Home Repairs

Fifty-one young adults (ages 13 and up) and their adult chaperones, all members of Trinity Episcopal Church, loaded into 16 vans and SUVs and returned for a second time in three years to help the residents of Port Jervis, N.Y. The return to the familiar town hit hard by the economic downturn was uplifting to both the Trinity members who had been there in 2007 and the new workcampers joining this year’s mission and outreach trip.

Of the 380 youth and adult attendees from Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Iowa, and Wisconsin, almost half the camp were familiar return faces who have now been working together for the past two to four years at Group WorkCamps. The familiar faces of the Port Jervis clergy, sponsors, and residents who greeted the Trinity team were a welcome sight, as Trinity immediately knew how welcome and heartfelt their efforts would be in painting homes, building wheelchair ramps, and repairing decks, steps, and roofs.

The Port Jervis High School served as home base for the camp, providing lodging, cafeteria meal services, and the much needed end-of-day showers necessary to degunk the paint, grime, and dirt from a challenging day of home repairs. The high school’s Wood Shop doubled as a staging area for the 90 ladders, tools, supplies, safety equipment, and trucks of paint and building materials necessary to complete the 54 housing projects by the 62 crews, each made up of five youth and one adult leader.

Some large projects had double crews and massive house painting projects often ended late Friday, with three crews simultaneously painting the residences and, on occasion, themselves.

During the course of the day the crews broke for lunch and spent time reading and discussing Devotions. Often the resident of the house joined the youth for the Devotions, discussing the theme for the week of how God “Reveals His Love for Us.” By the end of the week the residents and crews had bonded very closely, and the resident and family attended the evening programs back at the high school that highlighted the accomplishments of the week in prayer, pictures, Christian music, and giving thanks for all that has been accomplished.

Over the course of the week, the mayor of Port Jervis, the city’s clergy, the president of the Rotary, and many of the local business owners got involved in the workcamp activities, assisting the onsite Group Workcamp Foundation Staff from Loveland, Colo., who oversee and run all aspects of the weeklong adventure.

As a part of the workcamp coming together experience, all youth groups were asked to gather and bring canned food for the local food banks. Trinity Newtown brought more than 190 cans and the camp as a whole contributed more than 1,700 cans.

By Saturday morning the Trinity team was packing up vans and SUVs, saying heartfelt good-byes to both old and newly acquired friends, and already planning where Trinity would return to workcamp next year.

Attending this years workcamp were Myles Adams-Shepherd, Tom Anderau, Taylor Benson, Hutch Bermingham, Emily Bodwell, Matt Bodwell, Kevin Breuninger, Anna Chamiec-Pauneto, Tyler Coleman, Morgan Cutolo, Taylor Cutolo, Rachel DiVanno, Sean Elliott, Spencer Erhardt, Jackie Hoolehan, Maggie Hoolehan, Chris Jennings, Katie McMorran, Kali Melville, Megan Melville, Mac Morlock, Kevin Moses, Becca Napolitano, Dan O’Connor, Doug Pierce, Jamie Radcliffe, Liv Rowley, Alena Ruscoe, Andrei Ruscoe, Austin Ryder, Lucas Santiago, Mariel Schlaefer, Harry Snellback, Gretchen Streett, Lora Streett, Ellen Tabler, Jillian Thompson, Sarah Walton, Gracie Whitaker, Kathleen Whitaker, and Steve Zarifis.

The accompanying adult leaders included Shep Adams-Shepherd, Cindy Anderau, Jay Benson, Matt Benson, Chris Hoolehan, Paget Haylon, Margot Snellback, Beth Thompson, and Temple Whitaker with Pastor Kathie, Scott Coleman, Patrice DiVanno, Scott Erhardt, Dennis O’Connor, and Sue Vogelman providing transportation assistance.

And once again Larry Coleman (17 Camps), Boyd Schlaefer (five Camps) and Curt Symes (14 Camps) traveled with the Trinity team and served as volunteer Group Workcamp Foundation staff and site coaches throughout the week.