Mission work gives city youth insight to small town life

COLONY — “They’re awfully nice kids,” gushed Thelma Culler Tuesday afternoon, as a handful of youths from several states put a new coat of paint on her and husband Robert’s home at 412 Cherry St.
“They’re really hard workers, too,” Culler added. “They’re doing a good job.”
The five youths working on the Culler home, a two-story frame structure that will get upgrades to windows and soffits as well as new paint, are among 355 who came in 21 mission teams from 11 states to give 50 homes in Anderson County facelifts.
They arrived in Garnett Saturday under the auspices of Group Cares based out of Loveland, Colo. The organization began in 1976 when volunteers responded to the devastation caused by the flooding of the Big Thompson River with its headwaters in Rocky Mountain National Park. Twelve inches of rain caused the river to swell and rush down the Big Thompson Canyon, taking with it lives, homes and roads. An estimated 140 people were killed.
Each summer since then church youth groups have been organized and dispatched to help those in need of home upgrades because of disabilities or financial restrains.

TWO YEARS AGO Scott Rogers, a handyman about Garnett who has a heart for helping folks, visited with Iola’s David Toland about Thrive Allen County’s goals to help the needy.
Hoping to develop something similar for Anderson County, Rogers and Chris Goetz, associate minister and youth leader at Garnett’s First Christian Church, began the Garnett Area Paint Project, GAPP.
Its mission, said Rogers, is “to bridge the gaps in our community by encouraging and supporting activities that create positive community engagement.”
The enabling component is Group Care Workcamps, through which arrangements were made for church youth groups from throughout the nation’s mid-section to come to Anderson County and donate a full week of work to improve local homes.
The youth are split into teams of five with adult leaders, including Grant Pahlan, a youth minister from Fort Collins, Colo., and Curt Boger, a church youth leader from Rochester, Minn.
“This is a win-win for everyone concerned,” Pahlan said. “People who need help in fixing up their homes benefit, as do the kids,” for whom it is both a hands-on learning experience and a chance to have the satisfaction of helping others.
“The spiritual side is an incredible opportunity for all,” he continued. “The kids learn to follow God’s lead and listen to him. Adults see how God is working in the kids’ lives.”
Work groups intentionally are mixed so that members of each have a chance to make new friends.
“There are a multitude of success stories,” said Boger, who has traveled for 16 of the summer camps over 12 years. “I remember one young lady from Virginia who was so impressed by what we were doing that today she’s on our summer adult staff.”
Boger said for many of the youths helping, it’s their first encounter with people living on hard times.
“One girl called her mother and apologized for being such a pain, after seeing how little the family had that lived in the house she was working on,” he said.
Boger and Pahlan said such realizations were commonplace among youths helping with the summer projects.

YOUTHS involved in the Anderson County project are from broad Christian backgrounds. They are from churches large and small, denominational and not.
Logistics for the project was worked over about 18 months time, starting after Rogers and Chris Goetz attended a work session at Group Cares headquarters in Loveland.
On their return to Garnett, they got a warm reception from the town’s ministerial alliance, and work began to develop the project’s structure, including how to deal with logistics of housing more than 350 visitors to Garnett.
They also sought houses needing improvement. A list was pared to 50, with completion of work on all expected by week’s end.
Planners then put together lists of supplies, including enough paint for 40 homes. They contacted local vendors — all supplies were purchased locally — and solicited financial help. The ministerial alliance, city of Garnett and Anderson County each contributed $2,500. Additional money came in from businesses and individuals, with the total topping $19,000.
In addition, each camper pays $45 to participate, $30 of which goes for local expenses once the $19,000 is spent, Rogers said.
USD 365 also gave a helping hand.
Male campers have their sleeping bags scattered about Anderson County High School’s gymnasium. Girls are situated in classrooms overnight. Meals are prepared and eaten at the high school.
Local folks also have responded other than just financially.
Goetz said hundreds of bottles of water and iced tea had been brought to the high school, along with chips, cookies, cakes and other snacks for the youngsters to munch on when they return between 3:30 and 5 o’clock from a day of work.
“This all have been a tremendous blessing to the community and all the kids involved,” said Goetz.