Walt Andrews and Tyler Hatler were two of the teens who worked on a property as part of the mission effort Service Over Self (SOS) this week. In 90-degree weather, they operated saws and drills as they built a back porch for a home while other teens worked on painting the interior of the house.

SOS is in its 32nd year of repairing homes for those in need, free of charge to the residents, in a week-long summer mission effort. Although Crawford Street United Methodist Church (CSUMC) serves as the host church, many other churches are involved. Local churches in Vicksburg bring in both youth and adult volunteers, as do churches from Starkville and Hattiesburg.

Both Andrews and Hatler agreed they had learned a lot about home improvement during the week. Like most of the teens volunteering, they said they enjoyed the good feeling of knowing they had helped someone in need.

“It’s been a good year,” Mark Jefferson, the adult in charge at their worksite, said. “We’ve put in a new bathtub, front stair rails, back deck, back stairs and a lot of painting.”

The teen volunteers, supervised by experienced adults, perform basic home repair. Although the hours are long and the days are hot, the teens seem to love it, SOS officials said, adding many return after their high school years and service hours are done to volunteer as adult helpers.

Lee Ann Whitley, youth director at CSUMC, said the group of 72 teens and a host of adult volunteers worked on 11 homes this year.

“We built three handicapped ramps, a lot of roof repair, a lot of painting,” Whitley said. “We replaced a couple of showers and bathtubs. We built a couple of sets of back steps, in addition to the ramps.”

Cleaning, replacing fascia boards and repairing screens were examples of some of the other jobs the groups completed. 

“They also worked on flooring, some electrical outlets, but it was a really big roofing year,” Whitley said.

After hours of manual labor, the teens look forward to fun evening activities, Whitley said.

Whitley said one of the highlights of the week was the Monday-evening packing event for Extra Table, which included community members, as well as the teens.

“The kids loved the Extra Table packing event. They really liked the fact that the food is distributed to local agencies and stays in our community. We’ve got enough food insecurity in Warren County that it’s nice to see it stay here,” Whitley said.

Another popular evening activity is Tuesday night’s scavenger hunt. Teams race to find items to complete the scavenger hunt with clues placed throughout Vicksburg.

On Thursday night, CSUMC hosted a dinner for the teens and the families whose homes they worked to improve. 

“It’s been a phenomenal week all the way around,” Whitley said.