SABILLASVILLE, Md. – More than 65 teens and more than 50 adult leaders converged on Camp Round Meadow in Catoctin Mountain Park for Baltimore WorkCamp, using it as a base as they spread out to nine worksites staffed by 14 crews to provide home repairs for older residents in need of assistance.
Campers arrived in the afternoon of June 21 and prepared to stay through June 26. Days start with Mass and breakfast before the crews head to designated worksites in Sabillasville, Smithsburg, Hagerstown, Emmittsburg and Thurmont. Lunch breaks include time for spirituality and the evenings can include prayer, praise and worship, and eucharistic adoration.
At Bonita McClellan’s home in Smithsburg, a crew of six teens and four adults painted the bathroom, hallway, kitchen and dining room. They also replaced a part of the floor that had rotted out under a chest freezer. The flooring project required pulling up the old linoleum and subfloor, adding heavy joists for reinforcement and putting down plywood and relaying the linoleum.
McClellan, who has lived for 11 years in the home built by her father in 1950, called the presence of the workers “heaven. I’m very thankful that they are helping me.”
She has some disabilities and will have knee surgery next month. She said she did not have the funds to make the long-needed repairs. “I’ve been waiting a long time.”
A storm took out her power for three days in March and she is still working with the electric company to fix the utility pole.
Anna Abel, a freshman from St. Katharine Drexel Parish in Frederick and a camper for the second year, said she already knew a bit about home maintenance because she helps her father. She helped tape the baseboards and paint. She really appreciates opportunities for eucharistic adoration during the camp. Although she was originally a bit reserved, she said, “I learned how to make friends easily and I’m a people person now.”
The paint on Sister Maria Madre Purisima’s long habit was not from McClellan’s home, but from a project much earlier. This is the habit the member of the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matara wears when on messier projects, although she tucked in the front layer of her blue-and-grey habit while she used a circular saw to cut boards for the floor.
She said working with teens on projects such as WorkCamp is important because “ultimately everything we do is to help young people come back to the faith – to know, love and serve God and to know they are loved by God,” she said.
Emily Notabartolo, who is back for her fifth year at camp, this time as an adult on summer break from the University of Florida, likes the sense of community and knowing the work is getting done.
“I’ve met a lot of amazing residents over the years, and they are always so grateful,” she said. “If I have hands, I might as well put them to use.”
The needs were even more striking at Betty Lou Dawson’s home in Thurmont. She lives in a tiny cottage behind the house on her property with her dog, Tink. A rooster and three hens live in a cage just outside her front door. Power to the home had been supplied by multiple extension cords, some of them not rated for outdoor use.
Kenny Meek, an electrician and member of St. Katharine Drexel Parish in Frederick, led the effort for the teens to dig a trench so that underground conduit and cables could be laid for a dedicated power line from the house to the cottage. The team planned to install three outlets inside, as well as a new heat pump/air conditioner to replace a small window AC unit. If time permitted, they also planned to install a new window, which had already been delivered, where a plastic tarp covered a portion of the wall.
The teens also helped build a small deck for Dawson to sit on in her wheelchair. They also worked in the rain June 22 to dig and grade for a 20-foot path with fine gravel and pavers.
Alec Parker, youth minister at St. Peter Parish in Libertytown, said the crew had also trimmed some trees and cleared some brush around the property.
Dawson said the teens were “God’s blessing.
“The children are wonderful. They worked so hard digging that ditch,” she said as Tink yapped beside her.
Standing in the rain, Emmanuel Lopez, a rising sophomore from St. Timothy Parish in Walkersville, said Jesus provided a path for him to attend his first camp. “I love what I’m doing, Jesus blessing them.” He said the teamwork, having fun and night prayers would inspire him to come back next year, if he can.
At the same site, Audrey Mongan, a rising junior and member of St. Katharine in her third year at camp, said it’s rewarding spiritually to be with a community that shares her faith, and they know they are doing good work.
Seeing the conditions at Dawson’s home, Audrey said it made her think about things she takes for granted such as food, water and easy access to electricity.
“It puts into perspective what you have and others don’t,” she said. “It makes you want to work twice as hard because you know how impactful it will be for them.”
Jacob Stepanic, 25, who now lives in Appleton, Wisc., has been attending WorkCamp since he was at St. Timothy in seventh grade. Even when he was in the Air Force, he would use his leave to come back to camp, once flying from a deployment in Saudi Arabia to Wisconsin to pick up younger family members before heading to Maryland for the week. Now working full time, “I like doing it and I have vacation to spend,” he said of his willingness to make the 11.5-hour drive to get to the camp.
He said he is often one of the youngest people when he attends Catholic events, and he attributes his strong faith connection to Marissa Paoletti, who directed youth ministry at St. Timothy. “Marissa’s program was always great,” Stepanic said.
Paoletti, director of evangelization at St. Timothy, has been with WorkCamp since it started about 14 years ago, and now serves as its director.
She got “clipped” as she waited for breakfast and talked to a reporter, when one of the campers snuck a clothespin onto the back of her jacket. At a “clip check,” she had to perform a silly stunt, which is a tradition at the camp. It might include singing a song or telling a joke. Her “punishment” was drinking straight lemon juice, but the coffee she was drinking helped mitigate the taste afterward, she said.
Applications for residents who need help go out in January. Then scouts, who are often home improvement professionals, visit the sites to see the needs. Then the team determines “what we can do and what we can afford,” Paoletti said.
The costs for lodging, materials, food and meals are all covered by the teens’ camp fees. However, “hardly any teens pay (out of pocket) to come because of all the fundraisers,” she said.
Email Christopher Gunty at editor@CatholicReview.org.
For more information about Baltimore WorkCamp, visit baltimoreworkcamp.com
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