The Peru Gazette

Fabian Dopping, a German Exchange student at Peru Central

Youth Group students and chaperones

They couldn’t wait for the muffins to bake!

By John T. Ryan

Spring Break is a time for many North Country residents to travel south to enjoy the warm of sun. Each year the Peru Community Church Senior High Youth Group also travels, but not quite as far south as most people. The group stops in Washington D.C. where they serve the homeless and take some time to experience the sites of Washington D.C. Based on the photos, this year’s trip appears to have been five days of hard work, fun and learning! (Click here on a PC for a slideshow with music.  Thanks to DonYo (Donald McBrayer) for compiling the music)

Each day the students worked at a different site preparing and serving lunches or evening meals. One day they set-up tables along sidewalks and parks for Mckenna’s Wagon, a program that serves the homeless from vans parked near sidewalks and parks. At Martha’s Table they chopped vegetables and mixed huge batches for muffins for the evening meal. At the Capital Area Food Bank they sorted and packaged over 15,000 pounds of food during their shift. At SOME (So Others Might Eat), a soup kitchen that serves over 1,000 meals daily, they served 700 lunches and participated in a social justice exercise where they put themselves in the place of a person who is facing the prospect of being homeless. Faith Long, one of the chaperons said, “Our group is always invited back each year because they are hard workers with a great attitude.”

The Youth Group is a mix of students from the Peru Community Church, St. Augustine’s Church and other churches including the Christian Alliance Church and St. John the Baptist Churches in Keeseville and Plattsburgh. This year’s Youth Group members include Abigail St. Louis, Alaina Bazzano, Andrew Thew, Benjamin Morgan, Brady Terry, Brooke Desautels, Cole Ives, Connor Douglass, Devin Wood, Erika Cross, Fabian Dopping, Gabrielle, Dion, Grace Sullivan, Hannah Osborne, Jack Dubay, Lucas Frenyea, Megan Zmijewski, Nathan Kennedy, Shauna Fliss, Tyler Andre. Chaperones included Cheryl Remillard, Faith Long, Brian Raymond, Lisa Zmijewski and Patrick Knight.