Church Youth Plan For Role

 In Community Service Projects

Eight Newtown youths were among a group of Danbury and Bridgeport area high school and middle school students who gathered on a recent Sunday afternoon at the Miracle Faith World Outreach in Monroe to plan a joint community service project that will take place June 23 in Bridgeport.

Altogether, 40 youths from Miracle Faith and the Unitarian Universalist Society of Northern Fairfield County participated in the joint planning session, which began with getting to know one another, followed by lunch and story-boarding, led by Regional Youth and Adult Substance Abuse Project Executive Director Robert Francis and Training Director Soraya Bilbao.

Story-boarding is a technique that enables everyone to have a say in a decision-making process. The youths wrote their choice of a community service project on a piece of sticky paper. The papers were then collected and categorized. Those with the highest number of votes won.

The youths brainstormed many ideas for community improvement, ranging from helping homeless people and homeless animals, to giving basketball or guitar lesson to younger children, teaching computers to senior citizens, and mentoring younger children.

However, building, landscaping, and cleaning up the New Jersey Turnpike garnered the highest number of votes. When it came time for the youths to sign up for a project, the first two choices got all the names.

Youth leaders have arranged for the youths to assist with building and landscaping two houses under construction by Habitat for Humanity of Bridgeport. The younger youths, who do no meet Habitat’s age requirements, will assist with fixing up a nearby park.

Newtown students Ryan Greene, Kevin Peruch, Sarah Letson, Daniel Letson, Nikki Tarshis, Alexandra Doniger, Chris Schmidt, and Matthew Schmidt participated in the session. Unitarian Universalist Society youth group advisers and Sunday School teachers from Newtown included Barbara Meyers, Brad Greene, James Wruck, and Nancy Doniger.