With summer coming to a close, the Youth Group at Our Lady of the Lake has sent over some pictures of what they did on their summer vacation. Once again, the teenagers participated in Operation Helping Hands, a Catholic Charities project to repair and rebuild homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. This summer, Catholic Charities marked 200 families helped, 450 homes painted and 30,000 volunteers.
Barbara Camp, who directs the OLL Youth Group, told us by e-mail about what the kids did. “This year we had many varied projects,” she wrote, “that included roofing, painting inside and outside, fence repair, demolition, floor tiling– just to name a few. The thing that all of us had in common was that we worked in extreme heat. The heat index was between 112 and 118 degrees.”
“In addition to working, we continued to grow spiritually by celebrating Mass daily, and morning and evening prayer,” she added. “We celebrated Mass at St. Joseph the Worker with Clarke and his youth choir. We were clapping and singing and praising God in ways that we hadn’t done before. Then we had a chance to break bread at Sonic together. It is great to make friends down in New Orleans and learn about life down there from people who live there.”
The Youth Group received financial support for their trip from OLL and Verona at large. “As always, we are grateful for the generous donations of our parish family and members of our community,” Camp wrote. “Without their support, we would be unable to make this trip and make a difference in the lives of the people in New Orleans and the lives of our kids who travel with us.”
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