Jacksonville's Carla Harris - St. Augustine Catholic

david durrett
Spring break.
Most college students associate the words
with a chance to put away their books, let
down their hair, spend a week lazing in the
sun and partying with friends on beaches
from Daytona to Cancun in Mexico.
Another group of students however head
for the freezing cold mountains of eastern
Kentucky, hoping to make a difference in one
of the poorest areas of the country. They are
participating in Workfest, an alternative spring
break program sponsored by the Christian
Appalachian Project (CAP). Workfest provides
an opportunity for students to roll up their
sleeves and get to work on much needed
home repairs for the poor in Appalachia.
Appalachia is a mountainous, sparsely
populated region in the eastern United States
– a place where unemployment, substandard
housing and poverty levels are among the
highest in the nation. Father Ralph Beiting, a
priest born and raised in the region, founded
CAP in 1964 as an interdenominational Christian
organization that empowers the region’s
poor to help themselves.
Workfest began 14 years ago as a five-week
program providing college students service
opportunities coinciding with the traditional
college spring break season that runs from
February to April. Families living below the
poverty line and whose homes need major
repairs are eligible. Groups of students begin
work on a family’s home; subsequent crews
complete the project and retired building contractors
supervise their work and renovations.
Sister of Notre Dame Margaret Harig,
campus minister and volunteer coordinator
at St. Augustine Church and Catholic Student
Center in Gainesville, sends 10 young adults
from the University of Florida each year to experience
Workfest. Students are chosen based
on class seniority and they pay a nominal
fee to cover travel and living expenses with
the parish assisting with the balance of their
expenses.
Sister Harig has coordinated Workfest
programs on college campuses in Ohio and
North Carolina. She believes the work is in
tune with the church’s principles of prayer,
giving and community. The volunteers act as
ambassadors for the university and the parish
and many return describing the week as a life
changing experience.
“It’s important for them (students) to see
another part of the country, another culture
and another economic class of people,” Sister
Harig said.
A typical day for volunteers begins before
dawn with breakfast and morning prayer.
They head to the worksite and labor until
dusk. They eat dinner and reflect on their efforts
that day or listen to local musicians and
storytellers.
Three students from UF – Tim Allen, Viviana
Reyes and Will Sanchez – were among
the group participating in Workfest last
February. Not the typical spring break party
types; they were drawn to Workfest with a
desire to do something meaningful on their
break. The students made the 12-hour drive
from Gainesville to McKee, Ky., the heart of
Appalachia’s poor.
Reyes, an 18-year-old sophomore from
Bogotá, Columbia, saw poverty in her own
country but was unprepared for what she
experienced that week in McKee.
“When I thought of poor people I always
thought of other countries,” Reyes said.
“I never realized it was so close to me (in
America). I never thought a first-world country
would have so much poverty.”
It was the first week of Workfest and they
demolished a rotting porch, peeled off roof
shingles and pried window frames from a
home in preparation for the next crew. The
house had been hand built in the 1950s and
was “pretty dilapidated,” said Sanchez.
Sanchez, 20, went on the trip at the last
minute. He was apprehensive at first; spending
spring break outdoors laboring in the bitter
cold seemed like the last thing he wanted
to do. But he soon warmed to the friendliness
of the family they helped that week – an
elderly couple who were raising their two
grandchildren.
One of the children, an 8-year-old girl
named Stephanie, was wearing the same
ragged pair of shoes since she was five, he
said. Most of the time, she and her older
brother, Dewayne, ran around the house barefoot.
The students pooled their money and
bought the children new shoes and socks.
“The thing that touched me and inspired
me the most was the faith of these people.
It seems that the harder life is for them, the
stronger their faith is,” he said.
Allen, a 20-year-old junior from St. Petersburg,
was awestruck by the amount of
poverty he saw in Appalachia. The experience
left him considering a Catholic mission trip to
Central America after graduation – teaching
English to impoverished schoolchildren.
“I went into it (Workfest) not really knowing
what it was, and it ended up being one
of the most meaningful trips I’ve ever taken,”
Allen said.
At their camp on the last night of the trip,
the UF students met with another Workfest
group from Marywood University. Down
by the lake, under the clear night sky, they
huddled under blankets, meditated, prayed
and talked about what they had seen and
wondered if they had made a difference with
their hard work.
“It was the best spring break I ever had
in my entire life,” Reyes said. “It taught me
a lot about myself, my faith, to appreciate
what God has given me and to be able to give
something back to others.”
Matt DeSalvo, 22, a University of Central
Florida student from Jacksonville, traveled
to a small parish in Holy Trinity, Ala., an unincorporated
area near the Alabama-Georgia
border for Workfest.
Students from UCF and Florida State
University spent the week sprucing up the
church grounds and buildings. They cleared
underbrush, hauled away rubbish, chopped
wood, cleaned and decorated the community
hall for a St. Patrick’s Day party. They also
sorted and organized a huge pile of donated
clothing that had accumulated over the years
in a storage closet.
DeSalvo said the week was also a miniretreat,
with nightly discussions around a
campfire with the other students, talking
about Workfest, their Catholic faith and a
desire to continue to help others.
“I was thankful that I spent the time
helping a community that needed aid and
growing closer to the Lord …strengthening
my relationship with him,” DeSalvo said.
16 St. Augustine Catholic February 2006 St. Augustine Catholic February 2006 17
– Mark Udry
Volunteer Opportunities:
Catholic Network of Volunteer Service
www.cnvs.org
Phone: 1-800-543-5046
Email: volunteer@cnvs.org
Christian Appalachian Project (Workfest)
www.chrisapp.org
Phone: 1-866-270-4227
Email: capinfo@chrisapp.org
Notre Dame Mission Volunteers
www.ndmva.org
Phone: (410) 532-6864
Email: natloffice@ndmva.org
Break Away: The Alternative Spring Break
Connection
www.alternativebreaks.org
Phone: (850) 644-0986
Email: breakaway@alternativebreaks.org
St. Augustine, Fla.
America’s first mission and its
most sacred and historic site.
Here, in 1565, over 400 years
ago, Father Lopez offered the
first Mass in America’s First City.
Shrine of Our Lady
of La Leche
• The Great Cross
• America’s first
Marian Shrine
• Shrine Gift Shop
• Tours Welcomed
• Site of the
Founding of
St. Augustine
27 Ocean Avenue
St. Augustine, FL
(904) 824-2809
missionandshrine.org
Roots of Faith
both fragile and strong
Your contributions to the Collection to Aid the
Church in Central and Eastern Europe support
• Dissemination of the Word of God over large
territories
• Social justice for the needy and dispossessed
• Education for the faithful
• Training and formation for religious
• Services for the homeless, the elderly, children
and families in need
Please give generously to the second collection in
your parish on March 1 or March 5, 2006.
For more information visit: www.AidtoEasternEurope.org