The Orlando-based Catholic
HEART Workcamp provides teens with a chance to clean up their
image as well as their community in a week-long camp centered
around faith-powered mission work.
The Nashville branch of
the camp was hosted by Father Ryan High School July 2-8.
“The facilities are
perfect for us,” said Tom Caprera, the local manager of the camp
along with Steve Mackey. Caprera and Mackey, parishioners at St.
Philip Church in Franklin, began preparing for the camp in
January, finding worksites and organizing the almost 300
registered teenagers into groups of five or six, each group
presided over by an adult leader.
Caprera and Mackey
worked with Nashville outfits such as Project Reflect, Safe
Haven, South Nashville Community Organization and Graceworks to
line up the camp’s service projects. The profit for those at the
worksites is as great as the eye-opening experience for the
teens: the adults are shown that there are good teenagers doing
good things in this world. The camp offers a different view of
youth actions, defying teen stereotypes. They are motivated by
their faith to help others. Said Caprera, “They have the spirit
in them.”
The Workcamp was founded
in 1993 by Steve and Lisa Walker. There were only 100 participants
in Orlando’s first camp. Today, there are hundreds of parishes and
thousands of teens involved. From June 11 to Aug. 5, there are
about four camps per week. The same week as the Nashville camp,
there were Catholic HEART Workcamps in Charlotte, Lexington and
San Antonio. |
The campers hail from across
the nation and many have attended past Catholic HEART Workcamps in
other cities. Cortney Frahm, 18, and Tara Glynn, 17, traveled to
Nashville with their youth group from Mokena, Ill. Both girls have
participated in the camp before and they returned this year
because of the camp’s personal rewards. You see how thankful you
should be, said Frahm.
Not only do the teenagers
offer up a week of their summer to help others, they pay for the
experience. The fee goes toward their food and housing. The host
high school is chosen by Orlando, and this is the third summer
that Father Ryan has hosted the camp. The campers are responsible
for making their own way to the host school, and many drive across
the country with their church youth group.
The days start early,
with a 6:45 a.m. morning call that leads into long hours at the
worksite in the overbearing Nashville humidity, but the teens
don’t mind; it is a learning experience for all involved.
Julian Hannack, 16, of
Hudson, Wis., enjoys such volunteer work because “it gets me a lot
closer to God and closer to my faith.” To see the change in
people, he said, that’s the reward. “You can always do better than
you’re doing.”
Of course, it isn’t all
work for the teenagers. The evenings feature skits put on by the
campers, as well as prayer, reflection, videos, talks given by the
staff and worship music by Andy Cloninger and Walker Sherman.
There is a different theme each night followed by Affirmation.
There is also a free day in the week for them to travel around the
city to Nashville Shores, the Grand Ole Opry and the Nashville
Zoo. |
Nashville is one of the
camps this year with the “Take It To The Next Level” theme. This
theme can only be attended by 10-12 graders and it offers more
spiritual components: Adoration, Reconciliation, the rosary and
daily Mass celebrated by Father Geoff Rose, OSFS, of Michigan.
Martina Condron, volunteer
coordinator for the Campus for Human Development’s Room in the Inn
program, is one of the individuals who benefited from the teens’
time and effort. The campers reorganized the Room in the Inn
blanket shed and painted a job resource room where residents can
e-mail and fax their résumés.
The campers don’t always
do the best job, said Mackey, but the point is that they’re doing
something.
The Catholic HEART
Workcamp gathers faithful minds and charitable hearts for the good
of others. The benefit for everyone involved, said Camp Director
Brian Reinhart, is “to be a part of helping people put faith into
action, to build relationships with people you’re not usually
exposed to.”
 |
Photos by Theresa
Laurence
Top photo: Third-year Catholic Heart Work Camp participant
Courtney Ryan of Mokena, Ill., spent the week of July 4 in
Nashville, working on a home improvement project. Here, Ryan
paints a house in the Crieve Hall neighborhood belonging to a
paraplegic woman who was cheated by her contractor while
remodeling her home to be completely wheelchair accessible. CHWC
campers spread throughout the city doing service projects at
individual homes and social service agencies.
Bottom photo: Eric
Miller, left, Ashley Daily and Sean Hutchins of Morton, Ill.,
participate in praise and worship music during the Thursday night
program of Catholic Heart Work Camp at Father Ryan High School.
The charismatic evening program, which mixes song, prayer, skits,
videos and talks, is a key component of the camp, whose mission is
“to empower participants to live as disciples of Christ through
serving others.” |
