Nearly 400 arrive for youth work camp Home repairs on tap week
Nearly 400 youths have come to Elizabeth City to repair the homes of elderly, handicapped and lower-income residents through the Group WorkCamp program.
The program is sponsored locally by River City Community Development Corporation. The church youth groups from 14 states will be helping residents of Pasquotank, Camden and Chowan counties.
“I love it,” Jeff Wibben, 17, of Long Island, N.Y., said Sunday afternoon as he prepared to attend an opening assembly for the work camp at Pasquotank County High School.
Wibben and some of his friends are participating in the work camp for their sixth consecutive summer.
“We tried it and we’ve just loved it ever since,” Wibben said.
Although he’s a work camp veteran, this is Wibben’s first time in Elizabeth City.
The work camp program grows by contagion.
Wibben said he has asked a number of his friends to come on work camp weeks. They have come, had a good time, returned the next year and recruited others.
Kallie Epperson, 15, of Winder, Ga., is attending her first work camp.
Hearing her mother talk about her own work camp experiences prompted her to come on this trip. Her mother had talked to her about the joys of meeting new people, of being accepted and accepting others.
“It’s a nice idea to know that you can help somebody by fixing up for them when they’re maybe not able to do it for themselves,” Epperson said.
John Fulton, camp director, said more than 375 kids from 16 church youth groups have come to Elizabeth City for the week. States represented include North and South Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Delaware, Georgia, New York and Kansas.
Denominations with groups in Elizabeth City this week include Methodist, Lutheran. Presbyterian and Episcopal.
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