By Jessica Miller
Staff Writer
Sometimes it is hard to imagine life outside of the bubble of the South Bay, but community service is a great way to branch out into new environments and explore other cultures. Seven Costa students jumped at the opportunity to travel to the Bahamas over spring break.
Senior Claire Hunt; juniors Riley Mendoza, Josie Milewski, and Ashley Smith; sophomores Maddy Otto and Claire Barone; and freshman Tara Delk traveled to an island in the Bahamas called Eleuthera. They spent eight days with their youth group, Amplified, which is affiliated with Manhattan Beach’s Journey of Faith church, on a mission trip to participate in community service projects.
“It was exciting to meet kids and learn more about their lives and all they’ve gone through, and also being able to have fun and share my faith with them,” Hunt said.
The students traveled to a community called Blackwood on the island that hosts Haitian refugees. They organized and ran multiple activities for the kids and completed about three hours of community service each day, during which they helped put the finishing touches on a local church and passed out meals to the families that live in the region.
“The people on the island showed us so much love even though they had never met us,” Mendoza said. “The very first day the kids came running up to us, and they wanted to hang out all the time.”
According to Otto, the main focus of the trip was to teach the children about God while also introducing them to sports. The students formed groups based on the sport or sports they play.
“In the afternoons, we played sports with the kids, did arts and crafts or took them to the beach to play waterpolo,” Milewski said. “We also had fun teaching the younger kids how to swim.”
The students brought sports equipment, clothing and other supplies for the kids to keep. In addition, they passed out meals to families and helped paint the church that was recently built there.
“Whether it’s spending time with kids who don’t feel loved because their parents abandoned them or just helping people that need it, it was amazing to experience a new culture and help out wherever we were needed,” Smith said.
Leave a Reply