Off the Island and Into the Streets!
by Caroline Temple
Truly, I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you did for me. Matthew 25:40.
On August 20th, the Ocracoke United Methodist Church youth group departed on an adventure that we will remember forever. We were headed to Washington, D.C. for a youth mission trip – a first for OUMC.
We had arrangements to stay at the Pilgrimage, located in Dupont Circle in the heart of D.C. The Pilgrimage is a church program that houses visiting groups doing service work. We were excited as we rode the ferry, drove to D.C., and eventually unpacked our stuff in our new home for the next week. We then attended an introduction meeting in which we took turns telling our own stories. We predicted the week would be very eye-opening.
That evening, we walked around the city a little bit and got to see where Pastor Laura went to college, and the staircase from “The Exorcist.” As a special treat, we ate at DC Cupcakes, the bakery where the TLC show takes place.
On Tuesday, morning, our group split up and a few of us went to A Wider Circle while the others went to Anacostia to clear a trail. A Wider Circle is an organization that takes furniture that businesses in the area are getting rid of and keeps it in a warehouse. Then they make appointments with people who have homes, but maybe no furniture. Each person or family gets to pick out the furniture they need to make their homes. We helped sort, clean, and shelve products for the appointments. I like their motto: “As go one of us, so go all of us.” The other part of our youth group raked leaves and picked up litter with a tour guide.
That night we had a speaker named Eric Sheptok. He told us his story, and we listened intently, learning how he is an advocate for homeless people and is currently homeless himself. We also had another speaker named Candy who told us her own story of always ignoring the homeless people she saw on the streets until she became homeless herself. Mr. Eric led us around Dupont Circle, where we handed out various things like snack crackers. In our eagerness to help, we offered a toothbrush to one man who quite obviously had no teeth!
Wednesday morning after breakfast, we packed bag lunches of turkey and cheese sandwiches with some grapes and pretzels and water bottles. Each of us took as many as we could carry and we went out on the town. We were doing service work through an organization called Bread for the Journey. We went to parks and handed out the lunches. We received many thank-yous, which made every single minute of heat and tiredness worth it.
Later that day, after the lunches were handed out and we’d eaten our own, we arrived at the office of Street Sense. Street Sense is a newspaper that publishes the writing of some of the city’s homeless people. The office also sells stacks of papers to homeless clients for a small price so they may sell them on the street for a profit. We were introduced to one of the sellers, Evelyn, and then we divided into groups so we could cover all the nearby corners. We marched out in our bright orange shirts and neon green Street Sense vests and offered pedestrians the papers. It was shocking how many people suddenly got interested in the sidewalk, or the sky, or their cell phone as they passed us by. So it was very gratifying when the occasional person was thrilled to help out and spare an additional dollar or two. At the end of the day, all the money we collected went to Evelyn so she could pay the shelter fees for herself and her daughter.
That night we had a writing workshop with David Harris, a formerly homeless poet. We reflected on the past couple of days and wrote poems describing our experiences. He had some interesting things to say about his writing career as a homeless man.
On Thursday, we split into two groups again to go to separate soup kitchens for the day. One group went to D.C. Central Kitchen, while the other went to Food and Friends. D.C. Central Kitchen is a facility where talented chefs cook great homestyle meals that then get sent to dining buildings for the homeless. Food and Friends is an organization that supplies healthy meals for people with serious illnesses, and their meals are personalized to individual’s diets.
At D.C. Central Kitchen some of us chopped potatoes, some shredded carrots, and some picked chicken off the bone until we swore we’d never look at a chicken again. The four hours we spent at these kitchens were followed by a great sense of accomplishment!
To celebrate all our hard work, we went on a monument tour with Jeanne Fogle of A Tour de Force. We got to see the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial and a big statue of Einstein.
That night we got to visit with some old Ocracoke friends that now live in the D.C. area: Nebe Zekaryas and Joe Chestnut.
Friday morning, we attended a closing program to compare our expectations of the week to how we felt afterwards. Most everyone agreed it was an eye-opening experience and definitely one that did us good.
We had learned a lot on this last week of summer vacation. We learned to be thankful for our close-knit community, but to be aware of the world around us. We learned that anybody, wealthy or poor, can become homeless. And lastly, one very important thing that we learned is that if you see something that needs fixing and you have idea you can act on, you can inspire so many others and make a positive change.
The Youth Group kids were Amanda Gaskins, Katie O'Neal, Carson O'Neal, Kevin Perez, Karen Perez, Josie Winstead, Sierra Winstead, Eldon Robinson, Kyle Tillett, Sydney Austin, Kaylee Gaskins, Samantha Styron, Molly Lovejoy, and Caroline Temple.
The OUMC youth group would like to thank our wonderful chaperones, Pastor Laura Stern, Leslie Lanier, Doreen Robinson, and Tyke Ely. Thanks to Susie Kennedy and Leslie Lanier for helping us with the Flamingo fundraiser, and thanks to all the people who got Flamingo’d and made donations. Thanks to John and Dolores Gilbert for setting up the monument tour for us, and to Jeanne Fogle for the great tour. Thanks to Tina Slocum for providing snacks and personal care items that we distributed to the homeless. Thanks to Leslie Cole and Jen Esham for the loan of their cars.
