Campus Currents

“Project: We Care”

Ten students. Seven days. One city. A team of Walla Walla College students traveled to New York to volunteer their time and energy to the continued relief efforts taking place in the wake of Sept. 11.

From November 2001 to May 2002, an estimated 1,000 young people from schools, churches, and youth groups, will travel to New York to be a part of “Project: We Care,” organized by Youth Net eXtreme, a Seventh-day Adventist youth ministry.

The work at Ground Zero continues months after the initial disaster. Many organizations, area fire departments, and shelters have needs that volunteers can fill, from street ministry and feeding the homeless, to playing with children who lost their parents on Sept. 11.

After learning about this unique mission opportunity, Campus Ministries organized a trip to coincide with the end of Christmas vacation. Lois Blackwelder, campus chaplain, and her husband, Tim, accompanied the WWC students on the trip. Their goal? Blackwelder says simply, “to be the hands and feet of Christ.”

In addition to distributing food and literature on the streets, the group worked on three major projects. They volunteered from 2-6 a.m. at Niños, a former restaurant that now provides free meals to police and firefighters. They also spent time at Bowery Mission, the second oldest mission in New York, which shelters homeless men. The group spent two days working with Safe Horizons, a United Way organization, helping people who lost their homes or jobs in the disaster with the needed paperwork to receive relief money.

The WWC volunteer team included: Steve Leitner, sophomore theology major from Hayden Lake, Idaho; Shannon Greenlaw, sophomore business administration major from Boring, Ore.; Amanda Dorn, sophomore communication major from Vancouver, Wash.; Malora Christensen, junior English major from Hayden Lake, Idaho; Daniel Moor, senior biology major from Kelso, Wash.; Brenna Thomson, senior elementary education major from St. Maries, Idaho.; Steven Sanders, freshman business administration major from Yuba City, Calif.; Katrina Beddoe, junior music education major from La Grande, Ore.; Brian Meert, senior theology major from Citrus Heights, Calif.; and Steve Cochran, junior religion major from Elkhart, Texas. W

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