Helping Hands

By Harold Gwin

Mill Creek work camp aids local needy

The crews are painting, fixing porches and steps and building wheelchair ramps.

YOUNGSTOWN — “It’s a blessing. They’re doing a beautiful job,” said Robert Lumpkin, as he bade goodbye Monday to a group of young people who had spent the day scraping old paint from the sides of his Elm Street home.

“We’ll be back tomorrow — bright and early,” one of the young people told him.

The high-school-age crew is part of Mill Creek Group Workcamp, a group of about 400 young people from around the country who are in Youngstown this week making repairs and improvements — free of charge — to the homes of some 50 elderly, disabled and low-income city residents.

The students, housed at Chaney High School, were divided into four- and five-member work crews with one or two adult supervisors and spent Monday getting started.

“We’ll be here all week,” said Steven Brenyo, 16, of Vienna, Va., part of the crew at Lumpkin’s home.

They spent Monday scraping the exterior of the house and will be priming and painting, he said.

This is Brenyo’s second Group Workcamp experience. He went to a project in West Virginia last year, and likes being able to help others, vowing to go to a work camp project again next year.

“You all did a lot of scraping today,” Lumpkin told the workers as he moved around, shaking their hands as they were packing up to return to Chaney.

He said he tried to make them comfortable by putting up a temporary shelter from the sun with tables and chairs and getting them water.

They got along well, despite their age difference, said Lumpkin, describing himself as “almost a senior citizen.” “They even had me playing a game.”

Across town, another group of campers had rebuilt front and side door steps at a home on South Bon Air Avenue, and, by midafternoon, had moved inside to paint a room.

“This is my third work camp,” said Adam Ridley, 18, of Westboro, Mass., as he wielded a paint brush. His other projects were in Reading, Pa., and Oak Hill, W.Va.

He keeps coming back because he enjoys meeting new people.

“It’s usually a good time,” he said, prompting a couple of other members of his crew to jokingly chide him.

“Usually?” they repeated. “It’s always a good time.”

Britini Evans, 18, of Fairfax, Va., said this was her first work camp, although she’s been on church mission trips before.

When asked if she would encourage others to come, her two word reply was, “Of course.”

Brittany Briscoe, 15, from Wisconsin, is at her second work camp, having gone to an Indian reservation in South Dakota last summer.

Why come back for a second time?

“I loved it so much,” was her reply.

Mill Creek Group Workcamp is sponsored by Western Reserve United Methodist Church in conjunction with Group Workcamps Foundation of Colorado, a nonprofit, faith-based mission that coordinates work camp projects around the country and abroad.

Each camper had to come up with $399 to participate in the Mill Creek event, and many worked as a group to raise the funds.

All Saints Catholic Church in Manassas, Va., sent 60 campers to this project, said Daniel Van Gorder, 16, a member of that congregation.

They held various fund raisers, including car washes and bake sales, to help raise the money, he said.

This is his second work camp.

“I had so much fun last year and made a lot of friends,” he said, adding that he “definitely” will come back.

gwin@vindy.com