Here to Help

Teenagers from across the country converge on Yakima to work in food banks, help seniors and do various service projects - all on their own dime

By Adriana Janovich Yakima Herald-Republic

If they weren't here this week - working and sweating in the Yakima sun - they say they'd be hanging out at home, baby-sitting, lifting weights or working at jobs that actually pay.

But they took a break from those typical teen activities and paid their own way to come here to work for a week. They served as volunteers to accomplish a host of community service projects.

Well, most of them did.

"My dad made me come," said 17-year-old Juliana Mottola. "It wasn't like I was kicking and screaming, but I wasn't exactly excited.

"It turned out to be completely worth it - and rewarding."

Mottola was one of a group of Catholic teenagers from across the country to come to Yakima this week and volunteer through Young Neighbors in Action, a faith-based, service-learning program.

The teens worked in food banks, sorting and delivering donations. They did yard work and household chores for elderly people, played with kids at a child-care center and day camp, and helped out at a homeless shelter.

Plus, they painted - a house for an elderly couple in Wapato, and the interior and exterior of La Casa Hogar/ Yakima Interfaith Coalition, a Yakima nonprofit organization dedicated to helping low-income Hispanic women and children.

"I've been doing a lot - a lot - of painting," said Mottola, a senior at Kentridge High School in Kent, Wash. "I've been getting messy. But it's worth the hard work. It's so much fun to know that something simple like painting can have a profound effect on people and make their day better."

Taking a break Friday morning in the shade outside La Casa Hogar on South Sixth Street, paint-splattered teens reflected on their week's worth of volunteer work.

"I know a lot of people have stereotypes about teenagers not wanting to do anything or getting into trouble," said 18-year-old Nicole Dullenty, who will be a freshman next fall at Western Washington University in Bellingham. "I love being able to destroy that stereotype. I love to be able to share the faith that I have.

"We can make a difference" she said. "We aren't all out there trying to be rowdy."

Each summer for the past 11 years, about 2,500 teens from Catholic high schools and parishes volunteer through NYIA in 15 cities across the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Yakima is the only Washington city on their map. It's also one of the most rural; other cities include Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco, El Paso, Texas, and Washington, D.C.

"The people of Yakima have a great effect on these kids," said Betty Manion of Green Bay, Wis., co-director of the program. "They are wonderful role models, the ones who do this every day as professionals, helping those in need."

Nearly 70 students and their adult chaperones - from California, Arizona and the west side of Washington - are leaving today after a week's worth of service. A new group of about 60 students and adults - from California, Indiana, Kansas and Seattle - arrive Sunday. Yet another group was here in June.

The teens, from high school freshmen to recent graduates, pay to help; it's $325 to cover room and board, plus airfare. Most do fundraising in their parishes to help cut costs.

Once here, they take part in the program's four components: service, learning, prayer and socialization. They work from about 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in service projects around the Valley, mostly in Yakima. After that, it's time for some fun - swimming, barbecuing, dancing.

They also discuss the causes of poverty and, at the Friday night fiesta that concludes their week of work, they don apparel purchased at thrift stores in an effort to empathize with the people they served.

Their service projects focus on the elderly and those in need.

"They have done so many improvements for us that have made such a difference in our ability to provide services," said La Casa Hogar executive director Carole Folsom-Hill. "Part of what we do is provide a warm and loving environment for people to be in, and maintenance of the facility - the painting and fixing the yard that they do - is important"

For more information about Young Neighbors in Action, visit www.youngneighbors.org.

Source: Yakima Herald Republic Saturday, July 24, 2004