Whitesville Mission Trip 2025

My name is Zoey Fischer. I am 15 years old and last summer I went to Whitesville, WV on a mission trip with DOT Ministries to help rebuild a poor, struggling community. This year I would like to go again and bring my twin sister with me so she can experience this life-changing mission too.

I want her to feel what I felt: the joy of helping others, the pride of working hard for something bigger than yourself, and the realization that we can make a real difference.

Would you consider donating to help cover the costs of our trip?

Anything helps, and every dollar goes straight to making a real impact—for families such as Rose's, whose story you can read below.

Whitesville Mission 2024

For the past 27 years, DOT Ministries has traveled each summer to Whitesville, West Virginia — one of the poorest towns in Appalachia — to help families in desperate living conditions. I wasn’t so sure the mission trip was for me when my mom first explained it (we weren’t raised religious), but I decided to take the chance and traveled solo to Atlanta to take part, not knowing anyone except my aunt, who was volunteering in the kitchen. We met in a parking lot on a Saturday morning to begin what became one of the most humbling experiences of my life.

I was assigned two home projects for the week. The first one is where I met Rose. Rose suffered from severe kidney and liver issues that left her in a wheelchair, and she was trapped in a house with no ramp, living alongside her sister-in-law, who was on oxygen 24/7, and her husband, who was battling addiction.

The first job we tackled was the moldy and rundown bathroom. I wrenched a rusty old toilet off the floor with my bare hands, dragged it out of the house and replaced it with a new one. (With very little help!). I’d like to say it went smoothly – but getting showered with dirty toilet water from a valve that wasn’t closed off correctly tells a different story. On the bright side, the on-the-job plumbing training I got with the toilet fiasco gave me the skills I needed to fix her shower pressure successfully.

The next day, we replaced her sink with a new hand-built vanity so Rose could roll her wheelchair underneath it. We replaced her small wall mirror that was too high for her to see herself in with a larger one at wheelchair height. We gave the bathroom a good scrub to get rid of all the mold and finished it off with new soap, toiletries and a vase of fresh-cut flowers.

Rose hadn’t seen her reflection in a vanity in years. It was a liberating to see how happy she was the first time she was able to look at herself in the mirror and put herself together the way a woman should be able to.

Our final project for Rose was her wheelchair ramp. I dug holes and poured concrete for the poles and helped build the frame. Rose came out to watch us work and enjoyed every minute of it.

After Rose, I was assigned to another home that needed major repairs: we had to tear down a rotting back deck, fix the roof and gutters, and install new windows. We knocked down the old deck using crowbars and hammers — it was a challenge not to fall thorough the rotten old boards. I rebuilt the stairs myself after an adult helped frame them and nailed down new boards using a nail gun. I even completely assembled the new railing by myself, using a Sawzall and smoothing everything out with a sander with sparks flying everywhere.

When we finally finished the roof, windows, and back deck, the homeowner came out with popsicles to celebrate. Sitting there, enjoying a popsicle on the deck I helped rebuild, was one of the proudest and most rewarding moments I’ve ever experienced.

This trip gave me so much more than construction skills.

It showed me that my middle school problems weren’t as big as I thought.

It taught me that helping others gives you a sense of empowerment and real accomplishment.

It helped me make lifelong friends and memories I’ll always carry with me.

With your help, my sister and I can make a difference for another family like Rose's.

Message from Zoey’s Mom:

Each teen is responsible for raising $525 to cover their trip expenses. This fundraiser supports both Zoey and her sister Emma, who will be joining her. The mission starts on June 14th and funds are needed by end of May.

Donations made through this GoFundMe will be pooled and sent to DOT Ministries on their behalf. If you need a tax receipt, please donate directly at https://dotministries.org/donate-to-dot-ministries/ and send a message to us by clicking on CONTACT below Zoey's name as organizer to let us know so we can ensure your gift is credited to Zoey and Emma Fischer.

DOT Ministries is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, EIN: 84-4085772.

Thanks for your support!