By Susan Stevenot Sullivan

Craig Hickein, a sophomore at St. Pius X High School, spent weeks mowing lawns and doing other odd jobs to pay his way on a St. Jude Youth Group trip to Jamaica in July.

He thought he was going on vacation. He hoped to see some beautiful scenery. He did not expect to come back a changed person.

“I’m still struggling with it, two months later,” the student said recently. “It’s hard to see all the (junk) we have here we don’t need, all the things we waste money on. It has totally changed my outlook on money and life.”

For seven days in July, 10 adults and 25 high school students from St. Jude’s worked at an orphanage in Kingston, Jamaica. Each day ended with “devotionals,” a time for prayer and sharing.

“We shared happy things,” Hickein said. “We shared things that scared us and things we hoped we’d never see again. Things like you see on T.V., except it was right in front of us.”

The trip was an effort of the entire parish, according to youth minister Jennifer Goodwyn. Preparations began in December 1993.

“This was never just a youth group trip,” Miss Goodwyn said. “This was St. Jude Parish sending 35 people in their name and in the name of Christ. We were just the 35 people who got on the plane. We were the hands and feet of St. Jude Parish.”

The group decided to help the Mustard Seed Community in Kingston, founded and directed by Father Gregory Ramkissoon.

“Primarily they operate a Kingston inner-city orphanage with 72 children,” she said. “It was built 10 years ago to house 50.”

The Mustard Seed community needed money, manpower and supplies to renovate a building for a larger orphanage. Miss Goodwyn traveled to Jamaica in May to check the site for safety and suitability.

“This trip was meant to be an extensive construction work trip,” Miss Goodwyn said. “It was very important to see a finished product.”

The youth group raised money for airfare, renovation supplies and other expenses. Group efforts, such as car window washing after Masses and bake sales, resulted in credits to participants’ trip accounts. Teens who didn’t go on the trip helped with the fundraisers.

Parishioners contributed more than $5,000 to a second collection to buy construction supplies needed for the work project. More than 150 boxes of specific supplies, such as bed linens, were donated and packed.

More than 60 parish organizations were contacted and asked to “adopt” a student or leader to support with prayer and a welcome home letter to be carried by Miss Goodwyn and presented at the end of the trip. Parish organizations also made preparations for a surprise “welcome home” party.

After seven months of preparation, plans began to unravel on the day of departure.

Air Jamaica suddenly cancelled an agreement for special handling of the group’s luggage and donated goods and other arrangements had to be made. Upon arrival Miss Goodwyn asked to be taken to the work site where she found that refugees and political unrest had made it a dangerous environment.

“I told Father Gregory we weren’t going there,” Miss Goodwyn said. It was decided that the group would work instead at the existing orphanage which would still be home to 50 children once the new location is renovated.

Work over the days which followed included renovating the glass-littered, weed-choked playground. The site was cleaned, tilled and spread with plastic then gravel. The playground equipment was repaired and painted by the St. Jude volunteers.

One of the playground walls became a canvas for a huge painted tree decorated with hand prints of the volunteers in place of leaves.

The group also cleaned the 72 soiled mattresses the children slept on, covering the cleaned mats with plastic sheeting and sheets for the first time in the experience of many of the children, most of whom are physically or mentally handicapped. Extra sheet sets were supplied by the parish so freshness could be maintained without daily additional laundry chores for the overworked staff.

The group also spent hours grading the area around the outdoor chapel, which had varied by up to five feet, using only two wheelbarrows – one riddles with holes.

“We painted and cleaned everything in sight,” Miss Goodwyn said. “We organized and categorized closets to help the nuns who run the orphanage.”

Hours were also spent in play therapy, feeding and care of the children. The children were also given attention when they approached group members who were working.

Evening devotionals were an opportunity to process the day’s often overwhelming events in the light of faith. Great concern about “abandoning” the orphans they had helped was expressed in the final days.

“The last day involved a very emotional goodbye to the children. We stressed that we were returning to a welcoming community who loved us and prayed for us,” Miss Goodwyn said.

“I gave them (St. Jude volunteers) the letters from friends and family and parishioners welcoming them back to a community where they are needed and wanted,” she said.

“I didn’t start bawling until the last night,” said Hickein, “When we had to say goodbye to the kids. The ride back on the truck (to the sleeping quarters) was very quiet. Everyone cried and hugged each other. We felt bad to leave those kids after seven days.”

“We did brighten their days with love they wouldn’t have gotten,” he said. “They gave us a lot too.”

Thought the flight home was four hours late, more than 250 people met the group at the airport. It was then that the most emotional goodbyes of all began as the 35 people who had shared so much separated to return to their homes.

A special meeting had been held before the trip to prepare parents for the transitions their teenagers would experience when returning home.

“We stressed that you don’t have to be in Jamaica to see Christ at work,” Miss Goodwyn said. “Hopefully we brought a sense of service home to the parish and the ability to look for Christ at work in our lives. These kids came back wanting to change the world. We can change someone’s world.”

Two follow-up meetings for the group have continued to stress the trip’s theme: “We remember. We celebrate. We believe.”

Katie Proulx, a senior at Marist, said she feels very close to the people who made the trip with her.

“I’m probably closer to them than to the people who’ve been my friends for four or five years.

“The kids we worked with (orphans) had a huge impact on me,” she continued. “They were so joyful about everything. They had nothing, but they were so thrilled at the littlest things.”

“Driving through Spanish Town – probably the poorest part of Kingston – I’d never seen anything like it,” Miss Proulx said. “Trash, open sewers. It was disgusting. It’s unbelievable that people can live in a place like that.”

Miss Proulx said it was very hard to come back.

“I missed the kids. I missed the people we went with. I’d go back in a second,” she said. “It definitely changed my outlook. It taught me to be grateful for what I have. I take the joy that I felt from the kids and the love I have for everyone with me.”

“I know I want to keep doing that kind of work throughout my life,” Miss Proulx said.

Hickein said he’d “go back in an instant” if it were possible. H said he encourages his friends to do any volunteer or mission work they can.

“It’s changed my outlook on what I want to do with my life,” he said. “I don’t want to stay in the U.S. and die a rich man and leave behind rich kids. I feel called to help the less fortunate.”

Representatives of the group, including Miss Proulx and Hickein, spoke to parishioners on Mission Sunday. The youth group served refreshments after all the Masses that weekend to thank the parish for their involvement.

“We wanted to thank the parishioners for their financial and spiritual help,” Hickein said. “We wanted to let them know how important it was to us and how it changed our lives. Maybe it also gave them another (positive) view of what teenagers can do.”