Whiz Kids: Sierra Service Project

Each summer Sierra Service Project  takes about 2,000 teens to five Native American Indian Reservations in Nevada, Arizona and Idaho to help the local communities.  For 16 years St. Paul's Episcopal Church has been involved in the project, giving Benicia kids the opportunity to be involved.

“We do building and refurbishing, roofing projects painting projects, disable access ramps...” said Steve Rodekohr who runs the program for St. Paul's. “You name it, we do it.” The program also includes an urban project in south central Los Angeles.

Teens from grades eight to twelve are eligible, so campers can go for five years straight. “Probably 70 to 75% of the kids go all five years,” says Rodekohr. Originally, Benicia participants were just teens from the St. Paul's community, but word soon spread and kids from multiple churches and faiths joined in.

Since St. Paul's sponsors the program locally, kids from it's community get first consideration and the program fills quickly. Those that don't get in go onto a long waiting list. Although the program is faith-based, participants do not need to be associated with a church or religion.

Once chosen, campers are each responsible for $180 of the $325 needed. The rest of the money is raised through fundraisers throughout year by St. Paul's. “It costs about $10,000 to send the whole group each year,” said Rodehohr. The trip always happens in the summer but planning begins the previous fall.

This year, the Benicia group went to Wautec Village on the Klamath River in Humbolt County, 30 miles from the coast and 50 miles south of the Oregon border. Campers slept in a corrugated steel firehouse and used tarped, cold-water showers and porta-potties. When not working, the group was treated stories of the Yurok people, a Brush Dance ceremony and traditional skewered salmon cooked over a redwood fire.

The final night was the Candling ceremony.  The group sits in darkness and a candle is passed and each person expresses their thoughts and emotions of the week.  

“This is one of those programs where the young people really get it... about what service is and serving a people who are much less fortunate than they are,” said Rodekohr. 

Parents say their teens return with a new perspective. "My son Sam is pretty shy," explained Louise Garrison. "but when he came home, he was hugging everyone," 

Rodekohr, a retired police officer, is clearly devoted to the project. “It's an overwhelming program, it really is.”