Christian youth group helps out
around Gallup
ABOVE: Mike Meinz sweeps next to a statue of St. Joeseph at Little Sisters of the Poor on Friday morning. Church volunteers from California, Nebraska and Indiana came to the area this week as part of the Youth Neighbors in Action, a Catholic service program, to help local residents with improvement projects. BELOW: Will Amburgey of Sacramento, Calif. sets a patio stone in place while building a set of steps at Little Sisters of the Poor on Friday morning. Church volunteers from California, Nebraska and Indiana came to the area this week as part of the Youth Neighbors in Action, a Catholic service program, to help local residents with improvement projects. [photos by Brian Leddy / Independent]

By Gaye Brown de Alvarez
Staff writer

GALLUP —They came in swarms. They surrounded Little Sisters of the Poor, the Community Pantry, Care66, the Zuni Pueblo and other places around Gallup. They were small and moved quickly. They caused people to stop and stare.

They were the Young Neighbors in Action, several groups of teenagers who came here with their churches to do some landscaping, weed pulling and work around nonprofit businesses in the area.

Breanna Rumery of Sacramento, Calif., was one of the teens working at Little Sisters of the Poor on Thursday, doing some landscaping around the small shrine of St. Joseph holding the baby Jesus and the steps leading to the statue on the west side of the facility. They all shook their heads “yes” when asked if they were wearing sunscreen.

“There’s about 75 people working around Gallup,” she said and added there were six groups staying at Kamp Kiwanis after their day’s work.

“We’ve been coming out here for five to six years,” said Patty Cain, the coordinator of youth ministry for St. Barnabus Church of Indianapolis. Her group of Young Neighbors in Action was staying at the Sacred Heart Retreat Center south of town.

Each group spends anywhere from seven to 10 days in the area and most of them left Friday.

Milana Jordan of Omaha, Neb., spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday working in Zuni. When asked what she did there, she said she and her group of people were “mostly weeding.” Leah Clark of Omaha also spent three days in Zuni and both girls agreed that Zuni was “different” but they really enjoyed the time they spent there.

“But we ran out of work to do there,” Jordan said.

Cain said that Gallup was one of the four places they visit. They also have helped people in Tijuana, Mexico, Equador and hurricane victims along the Gulf Coast. Every summer, they spend their summer vacation helping communities.

At night, the groups sit around at Kamp Kiwanis or the Sacred Heart Retreat Center and do some recreational activities, eat and rest for the next day’s work. Most had cell phones to keep in touch with their families, but were surprised to find there was no cell phone reception in many of the places they either worked or slept.

They may be working hard, but it was obvious they were having fun. They put a red ball cap and some sunglasses on the statue of St. Joseph and a smaller pair of sunglasses on the baby Jesus and posed for photographs.

Where are they going next summer? They hope to come back to Gallup. They liked it here.

There are no mosquitoes here, said Rumery and the others nodded. They took the ball cap and sunglasses off the statue and got back to work.