While the majority of students were spending their summer socializing, a slight handful decided to donate their time to mission trips and organizations to help others.

Senior Amanda Creason took time out of her summer to benefit the lives of others. Creason spent five days interacting with orphans who wouldn’t have very many friends their age to talk to otherwise. With the trip organized by Global Orphan Project, Creason appreciated the opportunities had to travel to Haiti for a second time. Creason enjoyed traveling to Haiti and surrounding herself with kids that only have the clothes on their backs and no place to call home.

“It’s just a blessing to see how happy these kids are with absolutely nothing,” Creason said. “They don’t ever see teens or kids close to their ages and most of the time they just want to be held and loved.”

Creason visited a total of seven orphanages this summer and spent time with 25 to 45 orphans per orphanage. She plans on returning to Haiti in the future to visit the new friends she has made. Creason says she will never forget her memories and the people she was able to help.

“I will always remember going back and having one of my favorite kids remember me when I walked into the orphanage,” Creason said. “The kids would surround the bus; and when you got off, kids would grab you by the hand and show their love and joy for us.”

Senior Kayla Gruenhaupt also attended a trip to Haiti this summer. Gruenhaupt has traveled to Haiti four times now and is already booking her next trip for this school year, giving her over 800 hours helping orphans. Even though Gruenhaupt and the orphans are not able to communicate since they can’t comprehend English, Gruenhaupt is able to play interactive games or make art as well as sing and dance.

“We definitely have to get creative when making games that we can both play and understand,” Gruenhaupt said. “It’s really difficult sometimes since they don’t know what I’m saying, but I can tell just by their emotions that they enjoy the company.”

While visiting Haiti, Gruenhaupt was able to tour the areas affected by the 2010 earthquake.“The first time I visited the Mass Grave Center was very overwhelming for me and it’s not something I’ll ever be able to forget seeing either,” Gruenhaupt said. “It just so sad to see how many people’s lives were cut short because of this disaster and just how many people it truly affected.”

Gruenhaupt is expecting to return to Haiti in late November or early February to see the orphans she has been helping for four years now and to benefit the lives of more children.

Traveling six and a half hours, senior Jack Ayres spent his summer on a mission trip to Puerto Rico. Ayres was able to visit Arecibo and San Juan to help male teenagers struggling to control their life harming addictions through Teens Challenge. By applying biblical principles, Teen Challenge endeavors to help people become mentally-sound, emotionally-balanced, socially-adjusted, physically-well, and spiritually-alive.

Enjoying the time he had to help these teenagers, Ayres renovated the facility as well as lead worship centers for the teenagers to come and pray. While leading worship, Ayres learned how to sing songs in Spanish and interact with the locals more.

“This trip was a great experience for me to really help people and understand why they are in the place they are now,” Ayres said. “I thought that, since I was more involved with the teenagers during the worship centers, that I somehow made an impact on their lives.”

Through this experience, Ayres has now realized just how troubled some peoples’ lives can get, and that most just need encouragement and faith to help them though the problems they may face.

“I know that what these guys are all going through are hard addictions to break and it’ll take some time before they are free from it,” Ayres said. “I really hope that I made an impact on these guys through faith and religion to help them get through this.”