Helping others
By Bobbi Mlynar
Originally published 01:00 p.m., March 18, 2008
Updated 01:00 p.m., March 18, 2008
About 15 youths from St. Mark’s Lutheran Church are spending part of their spring break on a mission — not to Fort Lauderdale or Padre Island, but at home in Lyon County.
Community service and world hunger were primary focuses of the five-day mission.
The youngsters, from seventh through 12th grade, were at Wal-Mart during the weekend to sell links from a chain that symbolized a World Vision famine project.
The youths had built a chain made of 20,000 paper links, and sold each link for 25 cents. Cheryl O’Dell, St. Mark’s youth group’s mission leader, said that about 1,200 links were sold over the weekend toward a fund-raising goal of $5,000.
O’Dell said that statistics show that a child dies from hunger or hunger-related causes every six seconds; it takes about $1 to feed a child each day.
In addition to making the links to sell this weekend, the group also held a 30-hour fast to help them empathize with the hungry children. The fast began at 8 a.m. Saturday, and included a few juice, water and Gatorade breaks in addition to working the stand at Wal-Mart.
“We played games, we watched movies and we slept a lot to keep our minds off being hungry,” O’Dell said. “We had a good meal at 2 o’clock and they served one another. Before they ate, they served somebody else, just to kind of get the feeling. ...
“They learned a lot. They learned that they can go a lot longer than they thought without eating and that they were lucky to have three meals a day and food in the refrigerator if they need it.”
Members of the youth group will be out in the community for the next three weeks to sell more chains and to make presentations at other churches in hopes of gaining their support, too.
If they reach their goal, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans will match up to $1,200 of the total, and an educational grant available through World Vision will quadruple the amount available to donate toward feeding hungry children, she said.
“It’ll be $24,000,” O’Dell said. “It’ll be 24,000 children won’t go hungry one day.”
The money will be turned over to World Hunger. O’Dell said that 87 percent of the money goes directly to feed starving children or to provide seed and equipment for clean water for the villages.
On Monday morning, nine youths went to two Emporia Community Day Care Centers to read to the children.
The little ones were drawn in as older youngsters sat down on the floor and began reading.
“She started reading SpongeBob over there,” O’Dell said on Monday, standing in the middle of Community Day Care Center No. 1 and gesturing toward a reading nook, “and pretty soon we had a whole crew. After you read a book that good, you find more books to read.”
Later, after nap time, they visited The Learning Tree and D & M Day Care. They donated a total of 28 books during their stops at the child-care facilities.
Today, the youngsters were to go to homes of St. Mark’s members to help with chores they are not able to do for themselves. Between those morning and late afternoon visits, the youngsters were to go to Hammond Park to clear debris and pick up tree limbs.
On Wednesday, they plan to help others in the community with similar tasks.
“It’s ranging from helping them clean out their garage to cleaning light fixtures in their houses,” O’Dell said.
The project will end Wednesday night and leave the church youth with four free days until they return to classes on Monday, she said.