Darlington County youth repair homes during Community Changers week
One of the Community Changers teams helped replace the leaky roof of a mobile home on Jeffords Mill Road in the Dovesville Community.
By Samantha Lyles, Staff Writer, slyles@newsandpress.net
Volunteer work crews from Community Changers, a summer outreach program of the Welsh Neck Baptist Association, swept across the Darlington County area last week, with over 100 volunteers from 18 churches taking on home repair and improvement projects for families in need.
“This is part of the annual Community Changers camp, which we do every year in early June. It’s one week long, and it’s for kids who have completed the sixth grade up to the age of 18,” says project supervisor Ray Graham.
Community Changers works by teaming youth volunteers with adult supervisors who have experience with construction and home repair. These teams have about a 50/50 ratio of kids to adults. Over the course of the week, they fan out and tackle projects ranging from roof replacement to building wheelchair ramps, all to help people with demonstrable needs and scant resources.
“We have two main objectives. Once is to provide assistance to people that need it, and the other is to bring these kids in and give them a chance to spend time with senior adults. We have a lot of retired people with great skill sets and the time to volunteer, and this is a really good opportunity for the kids to learn from them,” says Graham.
Repeat volunteer Hannah Thompson, 18, of New Providence Baptist Church says she returned to the Community Changers camp again this year because it gives campers the valuable experience of seeing their hard work make a difference in someone’s life.
“Last year, our project was really fun. We cleaned a lady’s house and worked on her yard and trees, and it was great to see the change at the end of the week when we were done,” says Thompson, adding that the camaraderie between campers feels special because they accomplished something together.
“The fellowship between the kids at night during worship is just really amazing. And we learn responsibility, because the older campers really have to be role models for the younger kids,” says Thompson.
The visiting youth campers retire each evening to Mechanicsville Baptist Church, and once their workdays end they enjoy fellowship, cookouts, and fishing trips to relax and reflect on a very challenging – but uniquely rewarding – summer vacation experience.
To learn more about Community Changers, write to the Welsh Neck Baptist Association at 1048 E. Bobo Newsome Hwy, Hartsville, SC, 29551.
