Thinking Only Of Others

By Shannon Hicks

Instead of heading out to the movies or a party or another group activity with friends, a group of young adults from Trinity Episcopal Church spent the early hours of their Friday evening last weekend at church. The teens had signed up to do one of two activities that would benefit two other groups in their church: college students and adult chaperones for next summer’s workcamp.

About two dozen kids spent well over an hour in the Glover Undercroft and kitchen of their church on February 1. The kitchen had been turned into a candy workshop, where the young chocolatiers were given containers of melted red, white, pink, green and brown chocolate to put into molds and decorate. Many were making lollipops, while others were filling molds for bite-size creations.

The candies were then chilled, popped out of their molds, and taken to a table in the undercroft, where they were wrapped in cellophane or put into decorated containers. Candies are being sold on Sundays at church, following services and during café breaks, to raise funds for 2008 workcamp.

Trinity will be sending a group to Rhode Island this summer, and the money raised from the candy sales will help pay for transportation, housing, and other expenses for the adult chaperones. The young adults will be holding more fundraisers in the future to raise funds for their own expenses. Friday’s workshop was led by Mary Chamiec-Chase.

“We’ve been doing the candy sale for four or five years,” Pastor Kathie Adams-Shepherd. “They’ve been very successful. We’ve always sold out.”

Trinity will have between 30 and 40 young adults participating in workcamp this year.

“Not everyone going to workcamp is here tonight,” said Pastor Kathie. “They all have plenty of opportunities to work toward their workcamp experience.”

The other activity going on in the undercroft was the traditional filling of College Boxes: care packages that go to every college student who was a member of Trinity church when they graduated from high school. Congregation members are invited to donate items to go into the boxes, “things they think will be fun for the kids to receive from home,” said Pastor Kathie, “and then we supplement those donations with a few extras.”

More than 34 College Boxes were being filled Friday night. Each box included a letter from Pastor Kathie and a valentine made by the church’s school children, along with quarters (“for laundry and vending machines,” said Pastor Kathie), Post-It notes, cups of soup, candy, cookies, gumballs, snacks, pens and pencils, and other miscellanea. The boxes are going to students whether they are living on campus or commuting, and four are going to students who are studying overseas this semester.

“They receive one of these from us every year they’re in college,” said Pastor Kathie. “We send these once a year — they go out now, which helps beat the midwinter blahs.

“The kids at school, after putting together boxes for years before this [as young adults in the church], they really look forward to getting these boxes.”