North Jersey Teens Spend Summer Vacation Doing Charity Work

NEW JERSEY— Instead of hitting the beach or hanging out with friends, 43 teens from North Jersey recently devoted part of their summer vacation to completing a range of community service projects during the Archdiocese of Newark’s annual Summer Service Week.

This year’s Summer Service Week — which was overseen by the archdiocesan Office for Youth and Young Adult Ministry — saw the high school-aged teenagers volunteering at a variety of sites requiring assistance, including St. Michael Church in Cranford, St. Leo’s Church in Elmwood Park, and Sacred Heart Church in Bloomfield.

At many of those locations, the teenagers landscaped grounds, moved furniture, cleaned rooms, washed windows, and mopped floors. They also sorted clothes and distributed food to people in need at the Father English Consumer Choice Food Pantry in Paterson and The Mercy Houses of Newark and Jersey City. The youths even got the chance to create birdhouses for Holy Cross Cemetery in North Arlington, which will display them to comfort mourners.

Following each work day, the teens returned to the St. John Paul II Youth Retreat Center in Kearny to discuss their experiences.

“I hope this experience changes the teens’ perspectives and makes them appreciate what they have more,” said Rich Donovan, the archdiocesan Youth Office’s associate director for events and training. “And I hope they see that they don’t have to go far away on a mission trip to do service — there’s work to be done right here in their diocese.”

“The Summer Service Week may be over, but their mission starts now,” Donovan said. “It’s up to them to take what they’ve learned back to their communities and make a difference.”

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