Spending a week in Atlantic City, praying and doing church work

Photos by Alan M. Dumoff

Andrew Young, a participant in the Summer in the City service program, makes a new friend at Bruised Reed Farm in Middle Township, which is owned by the Atlantic City Rescue Mission.

Below right, Kristi Lee Young, Amy Kohout and Graelyn Luciano pack food at the Catholic Charities office in Atlantic City.

Sacrificing fun in the sun for service at the shore, youth from all over the Diocese of Camden spent a week in August in Atlantic City, as part of the Office of Youth Ministry’s Summer in the City service program.

From August 7-13, 36 high school teenagers volunteered at various work sites in Atlantic City, including Catholic Charities; The Rescue Mission; Jean Webster’s Kitchen; Atlantic County Food Bank; and Villa Raffaella. The students lodged at Holy Trinity Parish, St. James Church in Ventnor, for the week.

Highlights included helping out at the Bruised Reed Farm in Middle Township, owned by the Atlantic City Rescue Mission, where youth fed chickens, fixed a seeding machine, and gathered together drip hoses; the farm’s produce is cultivated for use at the rescue mission’s homeless shelter. The youth also helped out at Catholic Charities in Atlantic City, packing donuts and pastries to hand out to the homeless, and cleaning the site.

“The youth really enjoyed the chance to serve the less fortunate,” said Joseph Zagarella, coordinator of Summer in the City.

“The week was a transforming experience, in really opening up the youth’s hearts, to helping, and loving the poor.”