Story Created: Jul 5, 2010 at 1:44 PM
Many teens would rather spend their holiday weekend grilling out by the pool with friends or shooting fireworks off into the wee hours of the night. But one special group of high schoolers decided to do something different for Independence Day… Give back.
A youth group from Hillsville, Virginia traveled to Middle Georgia as a part of their annual mission trip. And since the Macon Rescue Mission had shut down for the holiday, the youth decided to step in and throw a cookout for residents.
Volunteer Kallie Scott said, “It’s fun to come out here and meet new people and do something a little outside your element.”
Something many needy folks in Macon said put a spark in their holiday weekend.
Raymond Grabel of Macon explained, “I think it’s very good that they’re learning to deal with things like that.”
The youth started cooking around 11 and immediately began to notice the need in Macon.
As of noon Monday, the group had already gone through 5 hot dog boxes, which hold 80 wieners each. They had about 1,200 hot dogs to hand out.
Youth Group leader Jeff Scott told NewsCentral they planned to grill into the late afternoon.. hoping to serve as many people as possible.
“I think it gives us a take on other sectors of the population that we don’t have a lot of contact with,” said Jeff Scott.
And not only do the young adults learn about other cultures, they’re also learning about themselves.
“It teaches you a lot about yourself because if you’re shy or if you have a little bit of prejudice inside of you, God will show you that and you realize what you need to work on as a person,” explained Kallie Scott.
Scott says the youth and leaders were also on hand to pray with any individual who felt the need.