Over two hundred students from Campolindo and other local high schools spent spring break building houses for needy families in Mexico with the Moraga Valley Presbyterian Church (MVPC). The youth group visits Mexico annually on spring break with their pastor, Dave Rickets, and their youth leader, Evan Kolding.
The volunteers were separated into different “teams” of 12 to 15 volunteers. Freshman Grace Roberts explained, “Each team builds a house. I was on the off-white team.” In order to work together, they had bonding time at lunch in between building houses.
“You really bond with your team. At lunchtime, the leaders ask you questions about your life. There’s a lot of crying,” Roberts said.
The students also interacted with the families whose homes they were building. They played games with the children, according to Roberts. She added, “The kids are so much fun! We play soccer.”
Some of the students spoke Spanish, “but it wasn’t necessary,” said Roberts.
Students signed up for the Mexico trip through the MVPC last January. They took a bus down, and slept at a safe campsite that was forty-five minutes away from the building site.
Sophomore Natalie Larson said of the week, “It was hard, but really fun to be with your team.”
It was a life changing experience for many of the students, including Larson. “It really has made me become closer to people I never thought I’d have ever been close to.”
