Rising senior Rachel O'Connor works with a member of the Hurley community to fix up a front porch.
From June 13-18, 2010, 48 Catholic Church members from Lynchburg and Harrisonburg took a trip to Hurley, VA to help those out in need. Many were first timers while others were nine year veterans. Members took on jobs such as roofing, fixing decks, dry walling, and providing free services to anybody who signed up in the rural town of Hurley. Hurley has an estimated population of 1,821 people.
“I really had no idea what to expect, but it turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life. We went with a great group of people and met some great Hurley residents,” rising senior Rachel O’Connor said.
“As I matured, I began to get to know the stories of the families whose homes we were fixing, and understanding that we were there to help actual people and to see how much our work improved their lives and meant to them made the experience really rewarding. So while we basically did the same variety of repair work every year, my maturity level made what I got out of the experience different,” University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill student Ben Charlton said.
Each day began at 7 AM with breakfast. They then began working on their separate group projects. The day finally ended at 4 pm.
“It was really amazing to witness the hard work you did make a direct impact on someone. It definitely made me more eager to do more community service projects,” Cathy Wertz said.
Workers got to interact with Hurley locals, getting to know the stories of each individual personally.
“Once people move here, they never move out. It’s usually family members or
Hurley, VA
people that look for an environment like this,” a local said.
With not much to do in such a small town with no mall and very few grocery stores, town members find other ways to stay entertained. Every Tuesday and Thursday, many come out with guitars, violins, cellos, and banjos to play music and sing along to popular music at a local park.
“It’s hard work during the day but a lot of fun in the evenings (mentioning the park), it really impacts people’s lives, and it’s cheaper than going to Haiti or somewhere out of the country. I don’t think you need to go abroad to help someone – this country has enough social and economic problems to start outsourcing charity,” Charlton said.
Despite a difficult living situation and hard work, those on the trip valued the opportunity to help those less fortunate.
“It didn’t matter that there was hardly any cell phone service and we stayed in a pretty crappy bunk house because we helped people who were significantly less fortunate and that made up for everything else,” O’Connor said.
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