Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Helping Hands
VOLUNTEERS FROM 10 STATES WORK ON 19 HOMES
PRAIRIE GROVE — At the end of last week, Mildred Ward of Prairie Grove had a wheelchair ramp to get into her side door and parts of her house were newly painted.
“This means so much to me,” said Ward, who lives on Summitt Street. She needs a walker to get around and had to maneuver several steps to enter her home.
She appreciated her house being painted but her main need was a ramp, she said.
“It will make such a difference for me. It will be a lot more safe for me,” Ward said.
Her house was one of 19 homes improved last week by 270 teenagers and adults volunteering in the Prairie Grove area with a non-profit organization out of Galeton, Colo., called Reach Mission Trips. The volunteers came from 10 states, including Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Minnesota, Arkansas and Alabama.
The campers slept in classrooms at Prairie Grove High School, ate sack lunches on their work sites and had breakfast and dinners in the high school’s cafeteria. In the evenings, they met together for games, skits, music and devotions in the high school’s new basketball facility.
Reach sponsors six week-long mission trips over the summer in different communities. In Prairie Grove, they were divided into 30 groups to work on homes in Prairie Grove, Lincoln, Farmington and Fayetteville. Projects included wheelchair ramps, painting, installing drywall and gutters and building porches.
Ward stayed in her house out of the 90-degree weather as she listened to construction work going on outside in her front yard.
Melissa (who asked not to use her last name) was overwhelmed as she watched about 10 teenagers work on her house on McCormick Street. Wearing old clothes, hats and drinking lots of water, students climbed ladders to scrape old paint from the house, followed by a coat of primer and then gray paint. Others were on top of the roof, replacing shingles in the back of the house.
She has lived in her home on McCormick Street for 29 years and it hasn’t been painted since then, she said.
“They are amazing,” Melissa said. “I’m in awe. I’ve never had anyone help me before.” She could not say enough about them, adding, “They have been nothing but incredible. It’s a blessing that I don’t feel like I deserve.”
Rob Button of Fayetteville has volunteered on eight Reach work camps and was instrumental in bringing a mission trip to Prairie Grove. Logistics involved in bringing the organization to a community include having a place to stay and finding homes for projects.
He thanked Prairie Grove School District for its willingness to open up the high school for the students. Button reached out to pastors, nonprofit organizations and cities for help in finding people who needed help.
The Arkansas work week is the first one west of the Mississippi River and Button said he hopes there will be others in future years.
Greg Hassenpflug, 16, of Westerville, Ohio, has participated with Reach for five years. Students pay their own costs for the mission trips, around $400, and the money is used to purchase building supplies, pay for meals, activities, administrative costs, a T-shirt and accommodations.
“I love spending time with my closest friends and getting to know new people,” Greg said. “It’s interesting how you can get to know each other when you work together.”
Junior high and high school students can participate in Reach work camps. Most come with their church youth group. St. Andrews Episcopal Church in Pearland, Texas, brought 47 kids to Prairie Grove. While on site, though, high school students are separated so they are working with people they do not know. Junior high students stay together as a youth group.
Don Stricklin, an adult with the group from St. Andrews Episcopal Church, said the Reach mission trip is a highlight for his youth group each year. “The kids love it,” he said.
Another adult volunteer, Steve Redding, has volunteered with Reach for 16 years and last week was his 20th work camp.
Gesturing to student hard at work on the McCormick Street house, Redding said, “This is what I like working about it. I like working with the kids. They pay to come and work on other people’s houses. The whole point is helping others. They do the work without asking any questions, just go right at it.”
The kids, Redding said, are making an impact on the community and giving a person a new start in life.
Kirstin Antonaros, 16, also of Westerville, Ohio, said she loves what Reach stands for.
“I love working with the people, meeting neighbors and meeting new friends,” Kirstin said.
According to the Reach website, the organization has been around since 1991. Its mission is to offer a top quality mission trip experience for junior high and high school students and to encourage them to adopt a lifestyle of serving others in their home communities. For more information, visit the website at reach missiontrips.org. For more information on Reach visit: reachmissiontrips.org