Project: R.A.K.E.

New London, PA – March 28, 2003 –- PROJECT: R.A.K.E., the home repair outreach of the Ground Zero Youth Ministry is seeking to contact low or fixed income families who own their home and who are looking for help with repairs.

This coming Saturday and Sunday, the Ground Zero Youth Ministry of will be taking 20-25 students into Oxford, Nottingham and West Grove to help several senior citizens & low income families with repairs to their homes.  Termed PROJECT: R.A.K.E., this team of students and adults, through the generous donations of local businesses and individuals, will provide free labor to re-shingle a roof, fix-up a mobile home, install new shelving in a clothing distribution center, and remove a fallen tree at various homes throughout our area.  The goal is to get teenagers involved in the needs of their community and spread Jesus’ love through Random Acts of Kindness Everywhere.  Four different projects have been lined up for this weekend. 

Ms. Johnson of Oxford, who just celebrated her 90th birthday, was told that she needed to have a new roof put on her house.  Living only on social security and traveling daily to Exton, PA for cancer treatments, she didn’t know what to do.  Johnson said, “I prayed and asked God to show me what to do and then two boys showed up at my door.” A day after she had prayed, Pastor Mike Atkins, PROJECT: R.A.K.E. Director & Drew Cope, Site Coordinator knocked on her door.  They had received her name from the Oxford Neighborhood Services as someone in the community who needed assistance. 

They were also put in touch with Ms. Hicks of Nottingham, who needs to have some repair work done to her home.  Her oil tank needs to be scrapped and painted before the oil company will deliver oil for her heat this winter.  She needs weather stripping placed around her doors and windows and her front porch needs to have the majority of the spindles replaced where neighborhood kids have knocked them out.  She also needs some work done in her bathroom.  Hicks said, “I knew I needed to get this all done, but living here by myself, I just didn’t have any way to do it.”

PROJECT: R.A.K.E is also scheduled to build additional shelving in the clothing room of the Oxford Neighborhood Services center and remove a wind-blown tree that fell in the back yard of Ms. Fabuchi of West Grove.  Neither she nor her daughters are healthy enough to cut it up and remove it all on their own.  She has arthritis throughout her body and one of her daughters has terminal emphysema.  “And these four projects are just the tip of the iceberg,” said Cope.  PROJECT: R.A.K.E.’s list of in-need families is growing weekly.  “We have several people on our waiting list for our next PROJECT: R.A.K.E. weekend.”

The actual inception of the program grew out of one student’s desire to take a summer mission experience she’d had through Ground Zero, into her own community.  Atkins explains, “Two years ago, while we were on our summer mission trip to Rock Hill, SC, Sarah Abel came and told me that she would love to do something like this (helping the community) where we live.  I asked her to call some agencies when we got back home and told her we would see what we could do.  A few days later she had called 8 different agencies and had an interview already set up!” The program’s name is based on a concept that Columbine victim, Rachel Scott, wrote about in her diary a few weeks before she was tragically killed.  Rachel believed that if one person would perform an act of kindness, it would begin a chain reaction of others doing random acts of kindness. 

Now, over 2 years later, many area teenagers have worked together with Ground Zero leaders to make a tangible difference in their communities.  Acts of kindness performed have included free car washes, roofing, painting, yard work, washing windows, and helping A.I. DuPont Children’s Hospital with their community day.  Atkins said, “We want students to take an active role in their community, but if nothing else, we want those who do not participate [in Project: RAKE] to, at the very least, let this “Project” inspire them to get involved in their community and help someone in a real, tangible way.”

Ground Zero is the Youth Ministry of New London Church located in historic New London, PA.  Ground Zero meets weekly on Fridays from 7pm to 9:30 for 6th-12th graders and also on Sunday mornings from 11am -12:15pm at the church.  All 6th-12th grade students are invited to attend.  New London Church is located at 1986 Newark Road/Rt.  896, 20 minutes north of Newark, DE just minutes south of State Rd. in the heart of New London.  For more information about Ground Zero or Project RAKE, please call the GZ Office at 610/869-7332 or visit www.GZYouth.com.

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