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Spicing up the volunteer effort

Colorado teens invent creative ways to clean up Chapman

Story by Annette Lawless

4:41 p.m. Friday, July 11, 2008

Chapman — Teenage volunteers make a contest out of cleanup in Chapman.

And with a bit of laughter, they rake across this field as fast as they can to see who can reach the end first.

“It’s a really cool thing on a lot of different levels, but definitely the memories that were made here,” says Kevin Regier, a youth group leader from the Winter Park, Colorado area. “Who would think that sweating your face off in Kansas would be fun? But it always is.”

Regier is a Kansas City native who wanted to bring his youth group to see his home state.

A group of 12 Colorado teens signed up for a mission trip to come here to Chapman and clean up the city. They’ve done anything from picking up debris to raking up yards.

“We always like to come back here from the mountains and show the kids places that we know and where we’ve been,” Regier says. “As we’re planning, the tornado hit around that time. It was really clear that there was a need here.”

The tornado struck Chapman a month ago, destroying almost the entire city. The teenagers are surprised on the slow clean-up process.

“It’s kind of weird because like seeing on TV, it just all looked the same and looking out the window was like you were looking at TV,” says Anna Wolfe, who found the scene at Chapman surreal. “But actually stepping outside is kind of real.”

“It was really sad at first, like it still kinda is,” says Matt Risley, who have volunteered at other disaster-relief areas before. “It’s kinda sad how all their houses are gone and how trash is just lying around and how people aren’t doing much.”

And by cleaning the yards and collecting trash, these teens say they learn how lending a helping hand can go a long way.