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During the week of July 23-28, 2006 14 Network students and 17 “Green Teens” from the cities of Poughkeepsie and Beacon, NY joined together for a week long experience of learning the skills of carpentry and masonry. The Green Teens were already involved in a year long community food project emphasizing agriculture, ecology and business under Cornell University's Extension Program. As part of that program, these young people did animal chores at Sprout Creek Farm every week for most of the year prior to this program. So it was the Green Teens, a group from two cities, who shared their knowledge of animal husbandry and gardening with the newly arrived Network students! Almost immediately, however, both groups built strong bonds and formed a single community focussed on their task of building something beautiful together.
Sprout Creek Farm provided the environment where Network participants in the Institute for Social and Environmental Awareness (ISEA) and the GREEN TEENS could develop the physical and mental stamina to create a 130 foot walkway in 98+ degree weather! They planned and executed this task that required math skills, organization, team work, and of course, manual labor. Together they laid a foundation, cut stone, laid the stone according to their agreed upon design, and then raked and re-seeded the buffer on either side. If this weren't enough, these young people also constructed 5 Adirondack chairs during the same week! Together they discovered the beauty and complexity of carpentry and masonry. In the afternoons, during breaks in physical labor, they reflected on the breakdown of prejudice and bias and on many other things that are part of their combined world view.
Having finished making beautiful and useful things from the work of their hands, these young people from totally different backgrounds, experiences, and cultures, with seemingly little in common, experienced
themselves as an imaginative, creative, and productive force, a community for good.
Margo Morris, rscj and Georgie Blaeser, rscj
Sprout Creek Farm
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One of the hardest things about our busy lifestyles is being present to those around us. One reason I’ve taken the pilgrimage to Guatemala the last two years is because as a pilgrim I am able to be present to where I am and I am open to being transformed. In this way being a pilgrim feels like meditation to me. It helps me see God in other people and it helps me see the barriers in my own heart. This leads to compassion and concern for the people of Guatemala rather than complete despair. And it is easy for me to despair.
The Sacred Heart International Summer Service Project now offers two sites – Mexico and Louisiana. Come serve, live, work and have fun as part of an international group of young adults 18-28. Click here for more info.