Community Corner
Local Youth Group to Rehabilitate Homes in Kentucky
Setauket Presbyterian Church's Youth Group goes on a mission trip to Eolia, KY.
Setauket Presbyterian Church’s youth group departed Sunday for its annual mission trip, this time to Eolia, Kentucky to help fix homes in need of repair.
Six adults along with eighteen youths departed on their trip after Sunday’s 9:30 a.m. service.
”Most people think that mission trips are to fix things and to ‘save the day,’” said Donna Emroy, junior-senior youth group advisor. “While you see everyday life [at home], you have blinders on to it. But when you see it in another community then you can come home to help and see what you can do.”
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Most members of the youth group are new to mission trips, with the exception of two that have already been on past trips. The group regularly goes to Washington, D.C, Cuba, and Eolia, sometimes working with the owners of the homes, sometimes working alone.
In Eolia, the group will be working with Mennonite Central Committee’s Sharing with Appalachian People (SWAP) Program. The group is scheduled to do a series of day jobs, including building a bathroom, installing a wheelchair ramp, as well as pouring cement for a garage floor.
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Emroy, an advisor of the group for over 10 years, recalls past trips to the area when the group did similar work in Appalachia, such as digging a well for the neighborhood and building a porch and steps for a woman who just had surgery so she could get in and out of her house.
Erik Pearson, a local contractor and Setauket Presbyterian Church member, has been looking forward to accompanying his son on the trip.
“It’s a bonding experience for me with my son," I like to help people, and I’m a contractor,” Pearson said.
For Pearson and his son Trevor, 15, it's their first mission trip with Setauket Presbyterian.
“I don’t do much community work and I want to get involved,” said Trevor, a junior at Ward Melville High School.
The youth group does a series of fundraising events to support its trip, including a yearly pancake breakfast as well as a talent show.
On the way down to Kentucky the group will be staying with different churches, as well as on the way home from their trip. They are expected back July 10.
“Our youth group is really involved in community service,” Emroy said. “We have a great group. We have a lot of fun."
