No pay, cramped quarters, teens find God in serving

Gladys Emery hadn't stepped outdoors in more than a year.

It wasn't that she didn't want to, but the rampway leading from her modest trailer home had holes too large for her walker to negotiate.

That was until a group of teenage volunteers from across the country converged on Littleton, N.H., for a week last month to build her a new one.

"It's a gift from God. I can't believe it, I'm so grateful they came," says the pint-size octogenarian, basking in the sun on her sturdy new ramp.

More than 400 teenagers and their chaperones, from church youth groups as far away as Michigan, road-tripped to Littleton to fix up 70 homes for low-income, disabled, and elderly people.

They are a part of Group Workcamps Foundation, a nationwide organization that welcomes the volunteerism of all civic-minded organizations, though most are Christian.

The faith-based group - an entity which President Bush's proposed faith-based initiative aims to assist by offering government funding - is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

Although long-term stalwarts of this organization tend to differ on whether government funds - and their possible strings - are such a good idea, they are unanimous on one thing: their solid record of accomplishment.

"Too many critics say [the government] lacks specific information on what faith-based groups achieve.... But we definitely do provide that," says vice president Joel Fay.

Indeed, the Group Workcamps record is impressive. All told, the 12,000 hours of volunteer labor in Littleton was worth at least $80,000, Mr. Fay calculates. Multiply that amount by the 48 workcamps all over the country this summer, and you're looking at upward of $3.8 million in free labor.

Of course, the Littleton camp director Tom Shepard concedes, "If someone hired skilled contractors, they would get the repairs done a lot faster."

But he's quick to add: "Our accomplishments go beyond just fixing up houses for the needy. There's also a lot of personal growth and learning about God that goes on."

That's a point the middle-school principal from Shepherd, Mich., backs up from his own experience.

On a stifling summer day in 1994, the first year Mr. Shepard volunteered at Group Workcamps, he remembers meeting a teenager, one of five Shepard was to chaperone for the week.

"He was dressed in a black trench coat, top hat - obviously trying to make a statement. And I just thought, 'Uh-oh, why's this kid in my group?' " he says.

The teenager apparently felt the same way, writing obscene comments to Shepard in the daily notes the group members were required to write.

But as the week passed, Shepard credits the act of fixing up a house for someone less fortunate, and the deep-felt discussions about God, with changing the young man.

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