Many students from the Guilford school district will be enjoying a vacation over the April break, but a group of 90 Guilford High School students will be using their break to help those less fortunate. Through Pilgrim Fellowship, a community outreach program sponsored by the First Congregational Church of Guilford, the group, along with 22 advisors, will travel to Jonesville, Virginia, to do rehabilitation work on homes.

“Families in Jonesville live in modest homes that have been handed down from generation to generation and are often the only real possessions that they have,” said Judy Wallace, director of Pilgrim Fellowship. “Home maintenance costs money, which is where Pilgrim Fellowship comes in. Our teens will have the opportunity to use their physical skills in repair and building work, but will also connect, one to another, with locals, which can open us up to life-changing moments.”

The group of volunteers will contribute more than 4,000 hours of work on homes in disrepair throughout the week they spend in Jonesville, a community of 995 people in the far western tip of Virginia. Jonesville is a once thriving coal-mining town that has fallen on hard times as the coal boom subsided. Pilgrim Fellowship says that currently about 25 percent of the families live below the poverty level and median household income is just $16,584.

Pilgrim Fellowship, which was founded in the 1940s, is working with the Appalachian Service Project (ASP), which is dedicated to making homes in Appalachia “warmer, safer, and drier for needy families,” according to its website, www.asphome.org. ASP also helps to make logistical arrangements for the volunteer groups.

While Chuck Ramsey, the publicist for First Congregational, is not making this trip, he has done similar trips in the Central America region. He has already seen the group’s hard work as the Pilgrim Fellowship has fundraised the entirety of travel costs and costs for repairs to the homes. Ramsey knows, though, that the week in Virginia can be life-changing.

“You forever change for the positive the life of the student you send down and also give a certain amount of hope to the person whose house is repaired,” said Ramsey. “We can’t do a lot, but we can at least make you warmer next winter or less damp this spring. Guilford is an affluent community, and overnight they’re in a community that doesn’t have anything.”

Owen Marks, a member of the Pilgrim Fellowship leadership team, is looking forward to being pushed out of his “comfort zone,” helping others, and building bonds among members of Pilgrim Fellowship with volunteers ranging from freshmen to seniors.

“It empowers teens and helps them to realize what they are capable of accomplishing—being in Pilgrim Fellowship benefits us just as much as the people that we serve,” said Marks. “Because we do so much together, we build relationships with people whom you probably would have never known. The mission trip truly broadens students’ perspectives. It opens our eyes to other parts of the country, and we get a sense of what it’s like to live below the poverty level in small-town America.”

Those going on the mission trip recently attended a blessing at First Congregational Church of Guilford with their mission trip beginning on April 10.

“We care about Guilford youth, and our program has evolved into a community that has wide arms to embrace diverse belief systems and a big heart for serving others in an effort to make the world a better place,” said Rev. Sarah J. Verasco. “When poverty and privilege meet, we all have something to gain.”