It is said that everything you need to know in life is learned in kindergarten. Sharing, listening, compassion, kindness, treating others the way you want to be treated are skills taught to us at a young age.
Haddonfield Memorial High School students and others from surrounding communities have been living out these kindergarten skills, fundraising for great causes that include the gift of a quality education for Garang Buk Buk from Africa, raising money for cystic fibrosis, for Autism Speaks, and supporting the family of a teacher battling cancer. They are an inspiring group of young people.
The First Presbyterian Church of Haddonfield has done its part to encourage this good will by leading trips each summer to help those in need, travelling to South Dakota to Appalachia, New Orleans to Guatemala and other places.
Together, we build or repair houses to give people safer and dryer places to live. The job of one particular group last year was to install a girder to hold up the center of the family’s house. These are not easy jobs, but they are rewarding. The students thrive in their work and learn a lot about who they are as people during a time in their life where many struggle with that idea. In recent years the trips have come full circle, and individuals who were once students are now chaperones.
In June, 51 individuals will be travelling to the Dominican Republic, where in just 4 days we will build three houses from start to finish. We will work with Casas por Cristo, a group that partners with local churches and volunteer teams to build homes for families living in poverty in several countries throughout Latin America.
These students are your neighbors; you see them in the musical, on the field and in the coffee shop or library studying. In addition to achieving great things in town and at school, they have a kindness in their hearts that is unmatched. Please help them in their mission and to remind us all that maybe we really did learn everything we need to know in life in kindergarten.
Each of the three homes we will be building cost $8,800. If you are able to help please contact the First Presbyterian Church or visit our FPC Haddonfield Youth Mission Trip to the DR GoFundMe page (https://www.gofundme.com/fpc-haddonfield-youth-mission-trip-to-the-dr).
Jeff VanderKuip, Youth and Family Director, First Presbyterian Church of Haddonfield. jvanderkuip@haddonfieldpres.org.
