7/26/07
Salkehatchie campers offer a helping hand to the less fortunate
By Philip Gibbons

PHILIP GIBBONS/ManningTimes

A Salkehatchie Summer Service worker from Andrews, S.C., spends the morning painting the eaves of a house in dire need of repair. The camp is sponsored by the United Methodist Church.

For most young people, summertime is a season of new love, the beach and well-needed time off from the demands of school. But for one particular group of kids, it’s about a lot more than that.

At the Salkehatchie Summer Service, a work camp run by the United Methodist Church, kids and adults spend a week out of their vacation time renovating houses in dire need of repair that the homeowners themselves don’t have the money to fix.

“Salkehatchie homes are homes that need much more than just a cosmetic facelift,” said the Salkehatchie of North Carolina website. “They are homes that need significant structural work. Salkehatchie projects include things such as roof replacement, bathroom replacement, floor joist repairs, installing siding and plumbing.”

“Over the course of the week the youth become familiar with the use of power tools and develop skills in carpentry, plumbing and electrical work. The adult leaders provide the necessary guidance regarding use of power tools and general construction site safety.”

The Salkehatchie Summer Camp was originally founded in 1975 by Reverend John Wesley Culp, who looked around and saw two different kinds of poverty: those lacking money and the things we take for granted, and youth not having anything to do with their time.

“Some of the worst poverty is in middle class America,” he was quoted as saying, “[It is] the poverty of loneliness, lack of communication, emotional and spiritual poverty… These kids are dealing with divorce, estrangement, drugs. They need hope as much as the people who suffer material poverty.”

From 1975 onward, Culp worked inspiring youth to aid others in need. But in 1978, an incident occurred that motivated him into reaching for something greater. In Hampton, South Carolina, a house fire caused by faulty wiring claimed the lives of three children. Had the home been in better repair, he realized, the tragedy could have easily been averted.

“Three young children died in a fire, and he decided to do something about it,” said John Librian, one of the team leaders at site of the Manning operation, “So he started Salkehatchie as a way to help them and the program started spreading to other areas.”

The Salkehatchie movement spread quickly, and a second camp opened in 1982. By 2003, there were “36 camps with over 2500 participants serving over 200 families at their homes.”

On July 17, repairs were underway on a group of houses down Manning’s Packard Street. Campers worked diligently hammering nails, painting, roofing and working on sheetrock. Activity was heavy; teenagers and adults bustled back and forth carrying supplies and the yards were littered with construction debris. Cords and wires snaked across the street. It was certainly a busy day, and only one in a long week of hard work and helping out.

The campers were split into different teams. Each one was concentrating on repairing a different house.

“Even if we get a large number of teenagers from the same church, we make certain to break them up into different teams so they’ll learn from different people around the state,” said Librian.

Each participant pays a $200 fee that covers the cost of food and shelter. During the night they are housed in places like churches or schools. Local churches provide lunches each day for the workers and breakfast and dinner are prepared where the campers are lodging. Often a church or school gym floor and a bedroll make a sleeping place.

Although those who participate in the Salkehatchie program are expected to spend long hours serving the community, the lesson doesn’t lie entirely upon heavy lifting and power tools. According to the website, it’s more than just a work camp.

“The youth attending the camps get the opportunity to see the face of poverty in their communities and, through nightly reflections, understand what it is to do God’s work through service to others.”