Youth Group Helps Family With Vehicle

By Taybor MillerThe greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.Recently, actions that reflect that sentiment comes from a Presbyterian church youth group, including Athena Wendland, Sophie Weise, Wes Snook and Alex Hammer.Taking the initiative to help those in need has been in the works for more than a year-and-a-half. The goal: to raise funds and give away a car for a local family in need.Dubbed ‘Mission Possible’ and partnering with the local business of M&D, who provided a free inspection on the vehicle, the youth group have purchased the car and made the necessary repairs to ensure it is safe and operable for its new family. It has been a long journey through multiple efforts of fund raisers to get to this point. A time consisting of 18 months of a journey in the goal to help their community. From bake sales, gift wraps, serving meals, and performing a ‘Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre.’ A second ‘Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre’ is already in the works for this coming July as they continue to work to on a new ‘Mission Possible.’Speaking on the journey and experience from the start to where it is now has made an impact with the group as they each echoed similar sentiments with Alex Hammer saying, “‘Mission Possible’ gives me a unique opportunity to give something back to my community.”Sophie Weise said, “Being a part of Mission Possible makes it easier for me to help my community who need support and allows me to see how far generosity can reach and what impact we can have from others.” The feeling of taking the initiative hasn’t been lost on Wes Snook as he said, “It brings me great joy to know that I am helping others.”There’s no sign of slowing down as the journey is one that looks to keep giving in the mind of Athena Wendland as she would say, “It feels like we are making a big difference that we hope to keep going. I’ve loved what we have done and hope to continue on with this journey.”As a guide on this journey, Ministry Coordinator David Conde was happy to see the group go the lengths they have as well as learning the lessons along the way saying, “For starters, I want people to know that these young men and women made all this possible. I was merely just someone who helped give advice whenever they asked for it, but they’ve really forged this out on their own.“It’s a big project, it wasn’t as simple as making or buying a meal. It took a lot of effort and a lot of time, and I couldn’t be more proud of them raising the funds to get this accomplished.“Here at our church we preach about Christ, and his love, his kindness to people and how we’re called as Disciples of Christ to shine that love on our community. To share that love with anyone we encounter. It’s really been amazing as these young men and women have grown into that. They’ve heard that message and now we see all the hard work they’ve done to demonstrate that.”The journey, an eye opening experience for the group that Conde has seen first hand within the group and knows that they want to help even more, “I think the biggest thing is that it has opened their eyes as they read all of the stories and applications. I mean they read every single one of them and frankly the read them over and over again. They were struck by the difficulty that life can have on some families.“I think that’s one of the biggest lessons is understanding a need in a community and how enormous that is. What I was most proud to see is that though they saw a difficult task and most groups would get down on seeing the work needing to be done. It had inspired them and they just wanted to work harder, and do more for the community.“The best thing to come out of this for the group is gaining the understanding of how it feels to do this for someone. This group is going to have the heart to help others for a long time to come and that’s going to be the best thing out of this.”Certainly an endeavor that future groups will look to help with and continue to carry the same demonstration of sharing the love for their community.

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