World Changers encourages student volunteering, faith
Volunteers assist in home repairs for residents in need throughout Chattanooga
CHATTANOOGA (WDEF) — A national nonprofit has returned to Chattanooga for its nineteenth summer and is taking care of residents in need.
World Changers will be in action until Saturday, July 23 and provides high school students with the opportunity to learn “what serving others really means.”
World Changers was founded back in 1990 and provides student volunteers the opportunity to assist residents in various home repairs.
However, some say that they’re there for a bigger reason — to share God’s love through their work.
On summer vacation, most high schoolers can be found working part-time jobs, playing video games or sports, or just taking some time off.
But at World Changers, it’s a whole other story.
“These students actually pay to come paint a house or to build scaffolding,” said World Changers Project Coordinator Peggy Colbert. “Different churches have sponsored houses this summer and they’re paying for the materials to do the houses and they’re providing the lunches for them.”
This summer in Chattanooga, 90 junior high and high school students from across America are assisting residents in various home repairs.
They’re painting houses, putting on siding, constructing wheelchair ramps, and more.
“I lived here for 14 years and it’s just great riding down the road and you see we worked on this house or this home,” said Chattanooga Site Coordinator Bobby Boutwell. “We think we’ve estimated over 700 houses that we’ve touched in the last 19 years.”
While assisting residents is vital for those who volunteer, many see a higher calling in their week with the nonprofit.
While serving the community physically, they also want to serve spiritually.
“It’s really awesome to learn more about Jesus and [to] get to share with everybody,” said World Changers Volunteer Jasmine Williams. “I love to paint. I’ll literally paint anything and I’m really good at it so it’s really awesome to paint houses.”
In service to the community, Colbert says one’s experience with World Changers sticks with them as the years go by.
“We have many students that now are parents or grandparents that came to World Changers,” Colbert said. “Now they’re serving as youth ministers or different areas of the church and it has really changed their life when they started out as a participant or on our summer staff.”
Students were up at 5:45 in the morning to get ready for the day.
Breakfast was at 6 a.m.
Boutwell says it’s amazing to see a collective group of students who don’t know each other at all “gel,” get to work fixing up a house and then become best friends by the time the week is over.
