Youth Group 2024 Service Trip to West Virginia

This summer, your Youth Group will once again be journeying to War, West Virginia, for our seventh annual service trip there! We are excited for the many adventures to come, the interpersonal connections we hope to strengthen, and the work we will provide for the community.

We will be returning with 9 youths this time, 1 of us is a first-timer and eager to learn and experience the trip. In order to provide everyone with an equal opportunity to give back through service, we have spent many hours fundraising and planning. That's why your help could make a huge difference for us, your donations to our GoFundMe could mean the difference for our youth, ensuring that no one will have to pay out of pocket and that we all will have the opportunity to come on this meaningful and exciting trip!

In West Virginia, we will be working with an organization called Big Creek People In Action (BCPIA). This grassroots operation, made up of ex-coal miners and their families, has been serving the community since 1990 by providing job retraining, a computer lab with internet access, community events, and much more. But the largest contribution BCPIA makes is the free home repair, upkeep, and construction they provide to families in need. In our service work, we assist with one of these construction projects.

On our first service trip in 2018, we painted the house of an older couple with limited resources. In 2019, we built a wheelchair ramp so that a woman with a disability could finally reenter her home, a couple of years after a medical condition forced her to move into her in-laws' more accessible house. In 2020, we re-floored an old coal-mining store and transported rooms of donated clothes as well as boxes of food donations into the building. BCPIA was able to turn this old building into a place where the local community will be able to pick up and/or drop off donations. Our 2021 trip was very important to us as we worked on the founder of BCPIA’s home and helped re-sided the walls of her home so that they would stay insulated as well as drywall and spackle her kitchen walls. In 2022, we re-floored the kitchen of a family’s home so that they would be able to use the kitchen and walk around safely. Last year we built a porch, put up siding, and fixed a bedroom ceiling.

This community is located deep in the Appalachian mountains in West Virginia’s McDowell County, one of the poorest areas in the United States. Due to climate change, the polluting and mountain-eroding effects of coal mining, and new mining methods which employ far fewer people, this once-flourishing community has fallen into disrepair. The population has fallen by 80% over the course of 10 years, meth and heroin use run rampant in the wake of the opioid epidemic, unemployment continues to rise -- some estimates suggest up to 46%, and the annual income per capita is only around $9,000.

For these many people left behind by American progress, BCPIA offers help and, perhaps more importantly, hope. And one avenue bringing both to members of the community is meeting with young people from around the country and being reminded that we haven’t forgotten them. That’s the message we hope you can help us send: we remember, we care, and we’re here to help.

In addition to facilitating our service for the community, any potential support you could offer us would go directly back into local businesses, in paying for housing, food, and building materials. We are thankful for once again having the opportunity to make such a difference in the lives of people less fortunate than ourselves.

From the Youth at First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Brooklyn, we thank you for your support and generosity.