Teens reach the heights by serving others in need

Bingo isn't going well for the elderly lady in the blue cardigan sweater who is scowling over her nearly empty card. Nearby, a white-haired woman named Grace exults in her recent win and is draped with a set of congratulatory Mardi Gras beads by staff at the Van Rensselaer Manor nursing home in Troy.

"I don't know why I bother to come; I never win," the first woman grouses, as the caller shouts out the beginning number of the next game. Just as quickly, her helper, Rich Belotti, points out that she indeed has that number on her card. "But that's a good sign," he says, and the woman smiles hopefully.

Rich, 15, a parishioner of St. Mary's Church in Crescent, is one of more than a dozen diocesan teens who have come to Troy to participate in the second annual SALT program, which took place August 3-9 and is running again this week.

Teen effort

SALT (Service Action Learning Teams) is a week-long experience that catapults teens from the world they know into contact with the poor and the underserved of Troy -- as well as into discussion of and reflection on Catholic social teachings.

SALT teens start their day working on a volunteer-built house that will eventually be given to a low-income family. In the afternoons, they travel to local agencies committed to working with the poor, such as Joseph's House of Hospitality, Unity House, the Boys and Girls Club, the Troy ARC (Association of Retarded Citizens), and St. Mary's parish soup kitchen.

At night, the teens live in community at a dorm at Russell Sage College. They learn about how social justice issues affect the modern world, and engage in prayer, journaling, and chatting about the day's events.

According to Mary Harrison, an associate director with the diocesan Office of Evangelization and Catechesis, SALT provides a place for teens to learn about justice issues, develop an understanding of the Gospel call to discipleship and explore Catholic social teachings.

Building a future

Rich, whose father is a carpenter, brought power tools to the house worksite, but Rich was not old enough to use them; that duty fell to 17-year-old Laura Stapleton of St. Mary's Church in Glens Falls.

"I've never done anything like this before," she said. "The first day, everyone was unsettled -- but not anymore. It took a while to get used to things. But after a while, everyone found what they were good at, and things became easier."

For 15-year-old Megan Linzy, a parishioner at St. John the Baptist parish in Valatie, one of the biggest lessons of the week was "that not all stereotypes are true." She says that many of her preconceptions about poverty were shattered as she went to work at Joseph's House, a Troy shelter for the homeless, and served lunch at the soup kitchen at St. Mary's parish.

"I was amazed at how important the soup kitchen was for them," she said.

New understanding

Before visiting the homeless shelter, both Rich and Laura expected to greet a situation like they'd seen on television: dozens of beds or cots lined dormitory-style in a basement or large room.

The reality of Joseph House, which harbors residents in well-kept bedrooms, was "more intimate," she said.

That afternoon, the teens were asked to clean out and sort some left-behind belongings from former residents of Joseph House -- "bags and bags and bags of stuff," according to 16-year-old Robert Mietlicki of Corpus Christi Church in Round Lake. "Clothes, pictures, blankets. It's a lot, until you realize that was all they had, and look at it differently."

Experiences

The five teens agreed that their favorite part of the week was playing with children at the Troy Boys and Girls Club.

"They wanted someone to talk to and hang around with and listen to their stories," said Robert.

The hardest was interacting with the developmentally disabled clients at the Troy ARC day program. Learning to communicate with them was difficult, he said, because of a gap in understanding that the groups worked all afternoon to fill.

"They don't communicate in the sense like we're sitting here and talking to one another," said Robert. "But once we built up the trust between us and the people there, it was easier to talk to them. We're usually not in that type of situation.

"I think I'll remember how much fun it was, and how much I learned. There's another world out there, besides nice neat houses all in a row."

Mutuality

Megan mentioned how she didn't feel like she had been volunteering; her actual feelings were quite the opposite: The people she was supposed to be helping actually helped her, she said.

"It was more helping me than anyone else," she said. "You're with people, and the people show you what it's like to be them."

"You learn a lot about yourself," Robert remarked. "I never thought I'd be able to get in and do things as quick as I'm doing them this week -- and being accepting of the situation."

(8/14/03) [[In-content Ad]]