Marcie Lynch, St. Paul's, Lewiston

We first heard about Camp Coast Care last year during our parish Stewardship campaign. It was introduced to us by Mother Keppy during our small group discussions about the gifts and talents we all have and can share.

Camp Coast Care is a joint effort of the Episcopal and Lutheran Dioceses of Mississippi. They initially provided food, clothing and shelter to Hurricane Katrina survivors and victims. Now they are focusing their efforts on rehabilitating and rebuilding homes damaged by the hurricane. Since their inception in September 2005, they have completed work on 365 homes and have housed over 11,000 volunteers who have assisted in that effort. And now, that number includes a mission group from our parish.

During our 2007 Annual Meeting, Mother Keppy arranged for Gilbert Hernandez, who had been a Camp Coast Care volunteer the previous year, to talk with us about his experience. After the meeting, about 25 people were interested in taking such a mission trip. Unfortunately, due to the selected weeks for the trip and age limitations for the volunteers, our numbers dwindled down to just five.

Mother Keppy sent out an invitation to other Episcopal churches WNY, and soon we had seven more interested volunteers from two local parishes – St. Mark’s in North Tonawanda and Christ Church in Lockport. Our mission trip was then in full swing. 

The twelve of us split into two groups that would be volunteering at Camp Coast Care over a two week period. We planned to drive to Mississippi, a 20 hour drive one way. Mother Keppy arranged a place for us to stay overnight in Tennessee as we traveled down to Camp coast Care and back. The initial estimate for the cost of the trip for all 12 wase about $3200 – this included our transportation (car/van rental), gas and Camp Coast Care donation ($20/day/person).

The Vestry agreed to let us use the charitable portion of our Fish Fry profits, the proceeds from the June Rummage sale and the entire profit from our Sausage Stand towards trip expenses. Mother Keppy also had the idea to rent out our parking lot during the Artpark's Tuesday in the Park summer concert series to help raise funds. We also decided to sell pizza, pop and water to the concert goers.

We raised $478 from the fish fry profits, $1,516 from the sausage stand, $684 from our rummage sale, approximately $400 from the Artpark parking. The remaining money came from donations made by parishioners, family members, community organizations, fundraisers held by St. Mark’s and Christ Church and missioners' own donations. In the end, this totalled $6,303 – almost double what we needed.

Group 1, included Jill Paolone, Bonnie Clark and Marcie Lynch. Unfortunately, an illness hit Jill several weeks before the trip and prevented her from going, so Bonnie and Marcie traveled to Camp Coast Care November 17-25 alone. They were greeted by Cathi and Charlie Bencken who had already been volunteering there for about a month.

Bonnie and Marcie worked with a small, great group of volunteers and the camp’s terrific staff and helped with finishing work on a home that was nearing completion. They also met three wonderful people in Crossville, TN during their overnight stay there where they spent the evening with Mother Ann Markle, rector of St. Raphael’s. Ann previously served as an assistant here at Calvary Church in Williamsville. Bob and Ginny UpDegraff fed our two missioners and graciously took them into their home for the night. 

Group 2 included Susan and Doug Keppy; Rocky & Diane Dworak, Marty Hall, John Kucharski, Gerry Poleon and Alan Shoen from St. Mark, North Tonawanda and Martha Farone from Christ Church, Lockport. This group left WNY on November 24 and returned December 2. They also stayed overnight in Crossville, TN and were treated to a wonderful dinner  put on there by St. Raphael’s on November 24.

For a day Group 2 worked on the same home that Group 1 had, fixing a plumbing problem. They also began work on another home, laying ceramic tile and installing dry wall. Some of the group also worked on other homes, roofing and digging holes for and installing support posts.

Both groups agreed their weeks proved to be a lot of fun and very fulfilling. 

We raised $3012 more than the total of our trip expenses, so we are holding these funds as seed money for the next Camp Coast Care trip, which will hopefully be sometime in 2008. There is still much work to be done on the Gulf Coast and Camp Coast Care is always in need of volunteers.