I'm raising money for a cause I care about, but I need your help to reach my goal! Please become a supporter to follow my progress and share with your friends.
Subscribe to follow campaign updates!
We are 6 Bay Area teenagers who have very diverse interests, hobbies, backgrounds, and talents, who are all united by our love of adventure and serving others. We plan to travel to the tiny town of Taylorsville in North Carolina, a mountain community where the average citizen has insufficient income to meet their needs. Please help us get to Taylorsville so we can make a difference and grow as people!
We are traveling to Taylorsville, North Carolina, a small town in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Although it is not immediately obvious, Taylorsville has a 21% poverty rate and an average household income of only $25,000. Like many small towns, Taylorsville is home to many people struggling to provide for their families and to maintain their homes.
We will leave from San Jose on Saturday, August 1st and return on Sunday, August 9th. Saturday, August 1st will be a travel day. On Sunday, August 2nd, we will join our service organization. We will then spend Monday through Friday doing our service work, ending our trip with a retreat day to reflect on our experiences before traveling home on August 9th.
All youth currently in 8th-12th grade are eligible for the trip. We currently have 18 youth participating in the trip.
We will be working with YouthWorks, a non-profit organization that facilitates youth service trips. They will be coordinating the service work and we will be joining other youth from around the country.
Our service work will include many aspects, but the main work will be two-fold. Our initial work will be with a Kid's Club offered by a local church. This Club offers local kids a place to come for games, classes, meals, etc. Depending on the needs of the town, we will also be doing maintenance work on the homes of elderly and in-need families of Taylorsville. This work may include gardening, painting, repairs, and more.
Over the past 20 years or so, the idea of these trips has become a bit complicated as churches have begun to realize that often times they do more harm than good on their one week expeditions into an area dealing with poverty, illness, or the aftermath of a natural disaster. Taking untrained, unskilled workers into an area with the idea that they will “fix” the problems results in a Band-Aid solution for both the afflicted community and the teens that are serving. We enter this trip knowing that we are not going to be able to address all the problems that this community may face, but we are going to hear their stories and share an experience of working together to help where we can.
This trip is not just about one facet of a youth trip experience. It is about creating an once-in-a-lifetime growth opportunity with three key missions: service, faith formation, and authentic relationships.
Service: Thousands of youth from Christian churches all over the United States attend mission or service trips each year, come back with great stories of how affected they were by the work they did, and then never do another act of service work. Once down from “the mountaintop experience” many people find it hard to translate the lessons and feelings from their trip into their everyday lives.
Our goal for the youth on this trip is to develop a habit of service. Through the combination of group discussion and personal reflections before, during, and after the trip as well as trip debriefs after our return, we hope to help each youth develop a deep desire to do service in their community. It is our hope that with this foundation, each youth may find a way to give back and help others. Service is about more than just doing the work; it is about serving with a grateful heart and discovering serving as a way of life. We want our teens to experience the joy that even the smallest act of compassion can bring...and we want them to discover that often it is them who is on the receiving end of that act.
Faith Formation: Faith formation is one of the elements of youth ministry that is the hardest to pinpoint and measure and yet it is also one of the elements that create the longest lasting effect. Youth aged 13-19 are in the expansion part of their mental and emotional growth. At age 11 and 12 they begin to set their moral code and personal beliefs. As their minds and world-views begin expanding in their teen years the things they witness and experience begin to challenge their moral code and open them up to a more in-depth analysis of their beliefs.
Trips like this one provide teens with an opportunity to challenge their own beliefs and worldviews. Youth will have the chance to reflect on journal questions each day as they interact with those they are serving and will meet with our adult leaders each evening to debrief the day. They will also have an extended reflection at the end of the week to process through each experience. It is our goal to make this a foundation that will take them into the next year in their lives.
Authentic Relationships: The impact and importance of friendships in the life of teenagers cannot be overstated. Childhood friendships are where most people develop their foundational understanding of: conflict resolution, communication, loyalty, and companionship. It is also where many teens find the most stress relief and stability. Research shows that teens that develop strong friendships within a group dynamic have more confidence, better communication skills, and a stronger sense of personal identity. Youth who feel confident in their friendships with other youth at their school or in their church also have stronger faith formation.
On this trip youth will have a chance to experience true authenticity in their relationships with their peers and leaders from San Jose, the other youth and leaders at YouthWorks, and the people they meet in Taylorsville.
A trip like this costs a fair amount of money. It is our mission as a church family to support our youth in their experiences and so we believe that finances should never be a reason why a youth cannot attend an event. Your donations help us to live up to that mission by funding the trip and our scholarship program. Any amount helps!
In addition to financial donations, we would ask for prayers as we work toward our goal and as we travel to North Carolina.
All money raised - including any above our goal amount - will go into the Youth Outreach and Scholarship Fund. This fund supports service trips and spiritual retreats as well as supplying scholarships for these events to any youth in financial need.
The money raised pays for transportation costs (plane tickets, rental vans, tolls, etc.), housing (we stay at free locations whenever possible, but cannot always find a place to house us), YouthWorks registration fees, food, and any other needed supplies. We attempt to be good stewards of our resources and strive to find ways in which we can save money each year. All money that is unused at the end of the year rolls over to become seed money for the following year.
We have three Donation Teams. Each team consists of 6 participating youth. Each team is attempting to raise $3000 toward our total goal. The youth on the team are responsible for adding information and media to their team's page, promoting their team, and updating the campaign.
If you have visited our page because of a specific youth, please be sure to make a donation on their page so that it counts toward their goal.
Sign in with your Facebook account or email.