Teams of teens leave homeowners happy Youths put faith to work in Washington County

WHITNEYVILLE – A measure of the kindness that Emily Huntley shows others came back to her this week as a dozen teen-agers from across the country replaced a section of roof on the house she has lived in for more than 50 years.

The 78-year-old volunteer for Washington County Extension Association’s senior companion program watched with pleasure Wednesday as the students vanquished leaks that had blackened the ceiling of her four-room home.

“I just kept painting over it so no one would notice,” said Huntley, who has lived alone since her husband died in 1975.

Standing beside Huntley with a beaming smile was the Rev. Betty Palmer, pastor of Down East United Methodist Churches.

“She’s a good neighbor,” Palmer said of Huntley. “Now, she has people from all over the U.S.A. being neighbors to her.”

Palmer is the chair of Neighbors Helping Neighbors, the faith-based organization that brought 385 youth and adults to Washington County for a week of helping others.

The students – who came from as far away as Arizona – are part of Group Workcamps, a program that offers Christian youth groups an opportunity to build their faith through service.

From Monday through Friday, the teen-agers and their adult leaders pitched in to repair rotting steps, paint, shingle or install handicapped-access ramps on 65 houses from Whitneyville to Lubec, Palmer said.

To be eligible for the program, homeowners had to be unable to make their own repairs. She said 131 people had applied for help.

The students and their leaders stayed at Lubec Consolidated School, rising at 6 a.m. for breakfast and devotions before arriving at their work sites at 8:30 a.m. They worked until 3 or 4 p.m., then returned to Lubec for dinner, evening devotions and a slide show of what each group had worked on during the day, Palmer said.

The teens expected to leave for home this morning, leaving behind a community that responded with enthusiasm and appreciation, Palmer said.

“Lubec is no longer the sardine capital of the world – it’s the cookie capital,” Palmer said. “We had 10,000 cookies baked by local volunteers.”

Palmer said the students and their leaders each paid $385 to come to Washington County. The registration fee covered their meals, transportation and insurance. A portion also was used as a dollar-per-dollar match for local funds that were raised to pay for building materials, she said.

Palmer said $14,900 was raised from Washington County businesses and organizations, much of it as a result of the partnership among Down East United Methodist Churches, Christian Disciple Temple in Lubec and the civilian employees at the former Cutler Navy base.

Paul Poisson, technical director of the former base, his assistant, Betty Vane, and Elmer Harmon, president of Local 2635 of the American Federation of Government Employees, provided 20 civilian workers who acted as troubleshooters for the project, traveling from work site to work site, assessing the quality of the work and providing assistance where needed, Palmer said.

Harmon said Poisson gave workers release time to help with the project, and the civilian employees also performed the initial site evaluation to determine which homes would be included in the project.

“The workers at Cutler have always volunteered for community projects but never anything on this scale,” Harmon said. “This was a wonderful thing for Washington County.”

Youth who participated in the project were also enthusiastic about the experience

Zack Brunner, an 18-year-old from Vineland, N.J., took time from his work on a Marion Township home Thursday to talk about why he returned to Group Workcamps for a second year.

Brunner said he likes the cultural opportunity to work with teens from different states, but that it is the spiritual experience that drew him back.

“It’s great because you can apply your faith to everything,” Brunner said. “That is our common thread, and there’s no way I was going to pass it up.”

Palmer said Neighbors Helping Neighbors will continue after the youth and their leaders depart. The group is still trying to raise money to finish work on some of the homes, she said.

For information on the project, contact Palmer at 255-4043 or pastor@prexar.com.