On Friday, August 24th, twenty-five young people from across the diocese gathered at Holy Trinity to participate in a weekend of fun and community service. The weekend was planned and led by Michelle Klippert (St. John’s Cathedral, Spokane) and Phil Mixter (St. James’, Pullman) and members of the Diocesan Youth Commission — Maddy Mixter (St. James’, Pullman), Micah Cruver (St. James’, Pullman), Kelli Rehbock (ECOR, Spokane Valley), Kate Burns (St. James’, Pullman), Ellie Stagaman (St. John’s Cathedral, Spokane), Chris Empsall (St. Luke’s, Coeur d’Alene), and Taylor Mather (St. Martin’s, Moses Lake). The group gathered Friday evening for re-connection and a brief tour of the West Central neighborhood.

Saturday started early with an 8am build-your-own-lunch line prior to the 9am work party kick-off. The group and leaders split into four groups to cover four different main projects. One project took several youth to the Windfall, a thrift shop ministry of St. John’s Cathedral, for interior painting and renovation. The other three projects kept the bulk of the youth at Holy Trinity to stain new picnic tables, repair old benches, and build planter boxes to renovate a portion of the unpaved parking lot. All told, the youth worked from 9am to 3:30pm, with a brief break for lunch. Everyone worked incredibly hard and did great quality work. The group celebrated its efforts with a trip to the YMCA for swimming and showers and with an evening barbeque in the courtyard. Rumor has it that, after a brief reflection on the day’s events, the youth fell quickly into a peaceful slumber…with the lights still on. On Sunday, the youth planned and led a great service of worship, which included a brief homily from Bishop Waggoner encouraging the youth to continue expressing their faith in the care of others.

Special thanks for the weekend’s success are due also to Kyle Klippert (St. John’s Cathedral, Spokane) who oversaw the bulk of the building project and barbequed the burgers, to Bob Runkel (St. Luke’s, Coeur d’Alene) who oversaw the bench renovation project, to John Fisher (St. Paul’s, Kennewick) who oversaw the table staining project, to Kris Christensen and her family (Holy Trinity, Spokane) who prepped the parking lot and delivered the lumber, and to Sheila Johns (Holy Trinity, Spokane) who oversaw the set-up and take-down of Sunday morning’s coffee hour.

The weekend was a tremendous success and, so far as I know, everyone made it home with all their parts intact. Drop in to see what great things this group has done for Holy Trinity, for the West Central neighborhood, and for the Diocese of Spokane. Thank you to all who gave so generously of their time and energy!