JOHN CICHOWSKI, Record Staff Writer
The Record (Bergen County, NJ)
A GOOD DEED -- CHRISTMAS SUNSHINE N.J. TEENAGERS HELP FLORIDIANS REBUILD
By JOHN CICHOWSKI, Record Staff Writer
Section: NEWS
Edition: All Editions -- 3 Star, 2 Star P, 2 Star B, 1 Star Late, 1 Star Early
Torrential rain left Mark Huther sleeping in 4 inches of water at
the end of his group's weeklong vacation in Florida. Bill Baitzel pulled
overnight patrol duty to protect the campers from looters. Tiny red ants
attacked Andrew Lois. One of the people whom Marieka Georgiakis came to
help chased her away.
Some might call it the vacation from hell.
But 13 adults and 52 teenagers from Bergen, Passaic, Morris, and
Essex counties who spent their holiday week fixing and painting church
buildings in sections of the Sunshine State ravaged by Hurricane Andrew
said providing this assistance amounted to the best week of their lives.
"The looks in people's faces, the appreciation in their eyes was
the most satisfying thing imaginable," said Georgiakis, 16, a Kinnelon
High School senior.
"I wish I could have stayed longer," said Lois, 15, a Tenafly High
School freshman. "I was happy with the bare necessities. I'm getting my
friends to come with me next time."
"My family has made up its mind that we're going to do something
like this every year," said Baitzel, a teacher from Kinnelon. "I'm kind
of depressed that I had to come home."
"Christmas is for giving, and I'd do it again," said Huther, 16, of
North Haledon, a sophomore at Eastern Christian High School. "We all
would."
The 67 volunteers -- from the Northern Valley Evangelical Free
Church of Cresskill, the Wyckoff Baptist Church, and Jacksonville Chapel
of Lincoln Park -- traveled 1,500 miles by bus and van; they ended up
sleeping in tents and showering with cold water from a garden hose.
To hear them tell it, though, complaints were few as they put up
Sheetrock, stripped off siding, hung windows, nailed down roofs,
painted, and performed scores of carpentry chores to refurbish two
parochial school buildings ravaged by Hurricane Andrew.
In an act of pure charity, participants paid their own way and
provided their own food and building supplies. Out of the $5,200 raised,
they had $2,000 left over to contribute to the schools' host church --
Pinelands Presbyterian in Cutler Ridge, Fla. -- to help continue the
rebuilding, said Matt DeLorenzo, the Jacksonville Chapel youth minister
who organized the trip.
Church elder Richard Kern is a New Jersey native who graduated from
Leonia High School in 1962. "For us, they were a godsend," he said. "For
them, it was a spiritual experience.
"The conditions for them were not that great, but they got up each
morning raring to go. It kind of gives you renewed hope in modern
kids."
Kern said the volume of work turned out in one week exceeded the
church's own part-time volunteer efforts over a six-month period. The
group's capacity for work astounded even the workers, including Mark
Yost of North Haledon, who made the trip with his daughter, Kim.
"I'm no chauvinist, but when they assigned me 15 girls and two guys
for painting duty, I was sure the girls would quit because they didn't
want to get paint in their hands and hair," said Yost, who attends the
Wyckoff Baptist Church. "But those girls wore me out."
He said even Florida contractors could not believe the extent of
the work accomplished, especially by a group of teenagers. "I had to
throw some of our young people off the job at quitting time every day,"
Baitzel said.
"Sure, I never did anything like that before," said Georgiakis, who
helped paint and hang windows and wielded a hammer and nails. "But it
was fun."
The 16-year-old also went out into the community to invite
hurricane victims to a New Year's Eve party. But one resident turned
hostile at the prospect of celebrating.
"He said he didn't need any help from somebody from New Jersey, but
I could tell he was in pain," Georgiakis said. "A tree was still
sticking in through the window of his house; his roof was torn away.
Some of the houses have graffiti. There are people sleeping in the
streets. But the other people were very, very appreciative."
Baitzel, Lois, and Huther laughed when they thought about the
prowlers, red ants, and rain that harassed them, as if those adversities
were insignificant in the face of larger challenges.
"What counts most is that three people came to the Lord while they
were on this trip," Huther said of three of his fellow campers. "One of
us who had the nickname `Delinquent' even swore off drugs."
For Roger Hancock of Lincoln Park, a psychotherapist who made the
trip, it was a simple matter of treating teenagers as adults.
"It's a lesson for any season, not just Christmas: Show kids
respect and they'll respond to it," said Hancock, who attends the
Jacksonville Chapel. "Our workdays are normally fragmented and
disorganized. But when people, especially kids, can work together by
making equal contributions, anything is possible."
Illustrations/Photos: 2 ASSOCIATED PRESS COLOR PHOTOS 1 - Teenagers fixing up
Pinelands Presbyterian Church in Florida. Painting: Rebecca Gould, Montville,
left; Pattie Skudera, Cedar Knolls; Mark Huther, North Haledon. 2 - Inside chapel:
Tara Schumacher, Dumont. 3 - ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO - A volunteer from New Jersey
grabbing a few minutes' rest at the end of a busy day in Florida - and also
at the end of a riding lawnmower.
