Youth Spend Spring Break Making a Difference

How did you spend your Spring Break? At the beach? At The Masters? For three members of the St. Thaddeus EYC, those two options did not seem very fulfilling. Instead, Stephanie Leguizamon, Tatiana Hoover, and James Crews spent their break in the mountains of southwestern Virginia.

The three youth were joined by Dave and Sally Howard, Joseph Whitehurst, and Joe Mitchell, who traveled with them to St. Paul, VA and Grace House, one of only two remaining missions in the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia. Each summer Grace House director Vicki Dotten brings in a number of groups to this region of Appalachia, providing them a place to stay while they help folks in the area by repairing roofs, replacing ceilings, and building ramps and storage sheds. While the 14 groups will not be arriving at Grace House until June, the area around Grace House itself needed some shoring up. That’s where St. Thaddeus came in.

In order to get the nine-acre retreat center ready for its summer visitors, the St. Thaddeus crew jumped in immediately. Dave and Stephanie helped put in a new ceiling; Joe dug a new fire pit and cleaned up the outdoor chapels; Sally and Tatiana stacked wood and helped clear brush from various parts of the yard; and Joseph and James helped put in a new hardwood floor.

But the work was only part of the experience. The crew spent Thursday night relaxing and singing by a camp fire in the new pit, and Friday evening drove to Norton to All Saints Episcopal Church, where the parishioners fixed a big meal and conducted Evening Prayer for their guests. The picture taken of all those present, with St. Thaddeus and All Saints members dispersed amongst one another, is a symbol of the new bond that has been formed between these two church families.

“Do we have to go?” was asked three or four times between Friday night and Saturday morning. “It’s beautiful up here,” Tatiana said. “I don’t want to leave.”

When Joseph told Vicki that he had never been on the top of her mountain, she replied, “Well, you have now.”

We came back down from that mountain Saturday evening, but the experience stays with us. We have pictures to share, stories to tell, and newfound mission hearts to put to use. What our time at Grace House really taught us was that even the smallest of things can make a really big difference. Before we left Vicki asked us to return next year, not to get the place looking nice for the groups that come in, but to be one of those groups. There is a very good chance that will happen.

For more information about the mission of Grace House, visit their website at www.graceappalachia.org .