Two weeks ago, many of our teens participated in our second annual, “Mission: Westerville.” This week is exhausting to say the least! Teens participate in two major service projects per day, with dinner and devotional to follow. Among the efforts served during the week were the following projects:
-Assisted teachers preparing their classrooms at Cornerstone Academy
-Packed and delivered snack packs for families at the Ronald McDonald House
-Prepared and handed out thank you goodie bags at a local veteran’s center
-Yard work at Andrew’s House of Delaware
-Food delivery with Meals on Wheels of Columbus
-Served breakfast at the Community Kitchen
-Organized and packed supplies at the YMCA
-Assisted with WARM Farmer’s Market
-Our traditional “$100 Challenge,” which is where we split our teens into groups, and give each group $100 to serve their community in some creative way. Some teens handed out flowers, gave gifts to drive through employees in recognition of their hard work, secretly paid for people’s meals in drive through lines, and handed out encouraging notes containing small gift cards.
We had an outstanding week enjoying each other’s company, and introducing our teens to these volunteer opportunities that are so close to home. Because of the hard work that the group does, it is our goal to keep this week cost free for the teens and their families. Many of you donated gift cards, money, provided meals, or opened your homes to all of us. We simply cannot thank you enough. We’ve said it before, but the youth group could not thrive without the support of our wonderful church family. Your donations were a blessing not only to our teens, but many people in Columbus. Thank you, church, for loving these kids so well.
-Caleb and Maggie