Published: June 22, 2007 08:12 am         

Helping one house at a time

Thursday, June 21, 2007 — The rain Wednesday didn’t stop some members of Carolina Cross Connection (CCC) from building a wheelchair ramp for one Albemarle resident in need. Through the drizzle, a group worked to cut the wood and construct the ramp in one afternoon so a mother would be able to wheel her son into the house for the first time rather than carry him.

But this is only one of the projects CCC will have completed before the end of the summer.

Now in its twentieth year, CCC is a Christian outreach ministry for individuals and youth groups to come and do service projects throughout western North Carolina. Five camp sites in North Carolina hold multiple week-long camps from the middle of June until the beginning of August. By the end of the summer, CCC with have helped more than 800 people.

Teenagers throughout the East Coast participating in CCC will be helping families all across Stanly County and surrounding areas doing whatever needs to be done from painting, yard work, building ramps and installing carpet to just spending some time talking to them. Not only does it help the community, but it also renews the participants’ faith.

“It recharges the Christian battery,” said Boyd Thompson, a group leader from Gainsville United Methodist Church in Gainsville, Va. “Even if it's just for one week, they get it. It’s fun and you see results.”

The Stanly County CCC camp, which was established eight years ago, was held on Pfeiffer’s campus until last year. Now, it takes place at Joshua Youth Camp. The group services Stanly, Cabarrus, Rowan, Montgomery, Anson, Davidson, Union and Richmond counties. This week’s camp, which has 90 participants split into Camp Mission Groups (CMG) of five to seven members, will help 56 people. Each CMG will have to complete four service projects within the week.

“You have your time constraints it’s not like you do a ramp the whole week, which is neat because you get to meet four different people in different communities and really get to be affected by them,” said Mary Taylor Carol, camp director at Joshua Youth Camp.

This week, along with painting and yardwork, five wheelchair ramps will be built.

One recipient is Malia Harkey of Albemarle. Harkey’s son, Kenneth, is 14 and suffers from cerebral palsy and seizures. For 14 years, she has had to carry her son in and out of the car and up the steps to the front door just to get him into the house. Then she must go back and carry in his wheelchair. As if that wasn’t hard enough for her, she must do it all with three deteriorating disks in her back.

“At first I was shocked but I was so happy,” Harkey said about finding out CCC was going to come and help. “I wish I could do something for them in return. They just don’t know how much of a difference it will make. The wheel chair is heavy too loading it in and out. I really appreciate it and it will make a world of difference.”

CCC doesn’t ask for any money from those people that it helps.

Instead, they go to local businesses to ask for donations or

discounts. Families don’t have to apply to receive aid and there is no age, race or socioeconomic requirement. Social Services and other organizations often call with recommendations or friends of those who need help will call.

“Our camp is really aiming to help new people every single week,” Taylor said. “We’re not a group that comes out and helps the same family every day. We want to reach new people, that's our real goal.

“All it takes is someone calling and saying, ‘I have a friend that needs some help’ and we go and go visit them.”

For the workers, the most rewarding part is seeing the look on the people’s faces when the group has finished.

“I like to see people smile when the projects are finished,” said Dylan Martin of Newton, N.C. “It helps get closer to the community and see God’s work in people’s lives.”

Myra O’Connor, group leader from Hayesville, N.C., said the best part is getting to know the people they work for because it is so gratifying to see how grateful the people are for their hard work.

Taylor, who went to the camp throughout high school before becoming a staff member throughout college and now director upon graduation from Wake Forest University this past May, said the best part really is the people.

“I don’t remember the actual work that I did, but I can remember names and faces of the people I worked with over the years and what they meant to me.”

After working together all day, the CMGs come back and hold worship activities as well as bonding activities.

“In our program we are all about the work of the communities that we do but when they come back in the evenings, we have worships,” Taylor said. “It’s a Christian ministry and it's good for the kids to come together and feel like they are really getting something out of it.”

Besides working on a different project each day, each year the youth groups are sent to a different camp to ensure the workers never get too comfortable in one place and have an opportunity to meet new people and new situations.

“You feel like there is no better place in this world for you to be than where you are at that moment.” Taylor said. “When you’re at camp, you are like, ‘This is what we are supposed to be doing.’ It puts life in order for you and makes you realize what’s the most important thing.”