STUDENT VOICE
Unexpected Friendship Through Service SERVICE TRIP TO RURAL APPALACHIA TEACHES LIFE LESSONS By Gerard Broussard ’20
A solid five and a half hours away in Appalachia lies Wise County, the poorest county in Virginia, with 400 square miles and a population of 40,000. What’s missing from these stats is the beauty of the place. Even after four hours of sitting in a cram-packed van, I couldn’t help but be mesmerized by the rolling mountains covered in trees. I was on a service trip and my mind was focused on helping these people, but why so far? The 100 participants were divided into 17 crews, and organizers sent their teenage laborers off to work at different sites. My crew’s duty was to rebuild a deck and redo some bedroom floors and walls. Just hearing about the tasks was enough for me to regret coming. All I could think on the drive to the site was, “Why am I here? I already have my service requirement. Why would I ever choose to do this?” Pulling onto the road of the site, the car began to shake, foreshadowing what state the house might be in. We arrived, and I could see the disaster before me. A completely rotted deck was ready to fall any minute, and trash covered the worksite. I just wanted to go home. I could only imagine what the homeowner
10 | StC Magazine