Helping a Community Halfway Across the Country | Teen Ink

Helping a Community Halfway Across the Country

October 14, 2021
By GavinM BRONZE, Dekalb, Missouri
GavinM BRONZE, Dekalb, Missouri
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

A few months ago, in the middle of June, I learned I would be taking my sister's place on a trip to Michigan. I was a little surprised because I thought she really wanted to go. Turns out she dropped out as soon as she realized it wouldn’t be an easy vacation. We were going with my church’s youth group, so it was a bunch of teens going to Benton Harbor, Michigan to help out the community with some work that needs to be done. 

The trip started with me waking up late. My friend called me at 5:30 in the morning, when the birds weren’t even chirping and the sun was just shining over the horizon. He said, “Hey are you almost here? We’re leaving in like 5 minutes.” I wasn’t. I was still in bed. Apparently, the vans left at 5:30 and not 6:15, so here was me rushing to get the rest of my stuff packed up and out the door. This, I found out later, was not a good decision. I forgot deodorant, a shower towel, shower bag, and an air mattress. Anyway, I ended up having to meet the trip directors in a McDonald’s parking lot which was pretty convenient because it was on the way to where they were going and where my mom was going. We waited outside the McDonalds for about 10 minutes in the cool morning air before the vans arrived. I stuffed my bags in the back of the van and we were on our way. Luckily, I was placed in the steady, cool van with few people and a working AC. The other van, with most of the boys on it, had no AC or radio so they were sitting in the hot van in the middle of the day, with the burning sun glaring down on them for 8 hours straight. 

About 8 hours later, we arrived at the church in Benton Harbor, Michigan. The first thing I noticed about Michigan was that it was a little cooler than Kansas. That was probably because it was on the very edge of Lake Michigan and it was farther north. Anyway it was a very comfortable environment. Once we got to the church, we unloaded all of our belongings in the long, hot, empty, classrooms we were sleeping in. Me and Max didn’t get the room all of our other friends were in. Their room wasn’t quite as crowded with people as ours was. Their room was neat, with mattresses in a clean pattern on the wall. Our room had people’s mattresses everywhere, clothes, sheets, and snacks all over the floor.  We were in a room with a lot of people from different schools. We went upstairs to learn the schedules of the days and the items we would need and how we would be showering. The breakfast and lunch was put together by the groups we were in. There were other jobs like making dinner and cleaning the cafeteria and bathrooms and kitchens. So after we had dinner we had some free time to get situated in our rooms and to get ready for bed. So we sleep. 

The next morning we had our gathering to figure out where each group was going. My group’s job was to paint two bathrooms at the beach. So, we headed there and a few of us who had never seen water meet the sky at the horizon were amazed. We messed around in the sand for a little bit and I ended up being buried. Anyway, when we started painting, we were all a little confused on what needed to be painted and where. We had no tape or tarps so it got a little messy. There were small, white drops of paint scattered all over the floor and on people’s clothes. A few of us guys got a little out of hand and started painting on the floor. We shouldn’t have done that because after that we got a stern talking to. 

After we were done for the day, we went to go get showers. The shower situation was a little awkward. We would be going to the YMCA and showering as groups. Obviously, it would be boys in one locker room, girls in the other, and adults where they needed to go. So that was fun. After we showered we got free time to do what we wanted. So after free time we went back to the church and were preparing for dinner. It smelled amazing and looked amazing and tasted amazing. We had tacos for the first night and they were delicious. After dinner we had another meeting about how every night we would have an evening activity. That means we go out into the city and do something fun. The first night we took a tour of Benton Harbor. It was a very cool evening with a gentle breeze. We met with Jerry, the city commissioner who my group had met when we were painting bathrooms. He told us the history of the town and the people, explaining that the population was mostly African Americans. The town next to it, St. Joseph, was a mostly white population, and many years ago people couldn’t even cross the city limits without being beaten and persecuted for the color of their skin. He also explained what some of the small brick buildings did and we looked at the newer, taller buildings. There were beautiful murals on the sides of the shops around town and small parks in the middle of the town where we could see many people just sitting there enjoying the weather. We even got to watch a bit of a rehearsal from the theater in the town. It was very fun getting to figure out what was happening in that town. We also had a lot of fun getting to know Jerry and getting to know about his past. 

The next day, we did the same schedule. We painted the rest of the bathroom, ate lunch, took showers, and got back to eat dinner and decide what we were doing for the evening. That evening we were going to the beach but we were actually staying to have fun. While we were there, we swam in the icy cold waters of Lake Michigan. We all went out as far as we could where the waves got over our heads. When we were all too cold to swim any longer,  we all stood in a messy circle to hit around a volleyball. Some of us were good at it and others were not as good. That was very entertaining but we were all really sandy from diving to the ground just to hit the ball. Soon after we all sat in a loose circle and talked about our day.  We left around 9 o’clock and got back and prepared to go to bed that night.

The next day, we had different jobs. We went to a new thrift store and helped them set up. I was on trash duty, which means I had to throw all of the stuff that was outside in a big dumpster. A part of that job was that we had to break up all of the dressers and displays which involved a lot of broken glass and shattered wood. After that was the most boring part of the trip. Two hours of raking up small bits of trash and picking it all up and throwing it in the dumpster. But then after, we got to do something very interesting. We were told to go through shopping carts of stuff the store didn’t want and throw it all away. There were many awesome items in the carts such as beautiful Japanese jewelry boxes, beautiful Japanese paintings, cool rock band posters, advice books, and a lot of other cool stuff. Our group leader said we couldn’t keep anything, but the store owners said we could have whatever we wanted so we kept a few small things. The other people in my group were either painting or sorting clothes. After that we left for showers and dinner.

Later that day, we went back to the beach, but it was the shopping area near the beach. We went to an ice cream shop that our group leaders were talking about. After we got ice cream, we went to a souvenir shop but couldn’t go in because of the ice cream. So we ate in and went back but it was closed. We were very disappointed because we wanted souvenirs. We later went down to the beach and played volleyball again. This time we tried a lot harder, and got even sandier. That night the sun was setting over the water and made purple and orange streaks in the sky and the water. It was like the lake was on fire. We went back even later that night. We all went to sleep and packed up because we were leaving that night. 

The next morning it was raining so we had to pack up fast. We left after getting pictures with the trip leaders and other school groups. We were heading to Chicago for our last day. We stopped at the place we were sleeping and dropped off our stuff. That night we would be staying in a closed school so we had the whole place to ourselves. We went to a small hot dog place called Jean & Dude’s. The hot dogs were amazing and the fries they came with were so good. Did you know it’s very discouraged to ask for ketchup on a hot dog? Later, we headed to the train station to head downtown. It was a 45 minute ride on the L train. When we got there we went to the famous Bean in Chicago. We walked through Grant Park and looked at the huge fountains and beautiful flowers. We looked for a while and took pictures while we waited for our leader to reserve a place at a pizza restaurant. We ate some of the best pizza I’ve had. There was melted cheese that stretched when you cut the pizza and the delicious tomato sauce on a delicious crust. After we finished eating, we went shopping for souvenirs and anything we could find. We stopped at many different stores and some ice cream, popcorn, and chocolate places. Later we went back to the school we were staying at and messed around the gym for a while. We went to sleep, woke up, got ready to leave, and left for home.

The trip made me want to go on more trips like that but with friends, I don’t think I could do it by myself. I also told my sister about how fun it was and needless to say, she was a little mad. When I got home I started thinking about the trip, the events that happened, the people we helped, and the fun we had. I got to see the shore for the first time, met new friends, and had some meaningful moments in those four days. It felt good to help out a community like that.


The author's comments:

My name is Gavin and I'm a Freshman in High School in Missouri


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