Local teens find greater purpose in helping tornado-ravaged communities

It is the second time they’ve step up when a storm had devastating impact

By Jennifer Eisenbart

Staff Writer

For 16-year-old Kylie Dawley, mission trips have become a part of her life.

The reason? Well, she just likes helping others.

“I’ve always had this passion to go out and help people,” said Dawley, who will be making her fourth mission trip with Faith Chapel Evangelical Free Church.

This time, Dawley and four other teenagers, along with three adult chaperones, will leave Friday for Oklahoma City, where they will be assisting in the cleanup efforts in the wake of the May tornadoes in Oklahoma.

It’s not the first time Dawley – or others on the trip – have been at a disaster site. Back in 2011, the group made a mission trip to Joplin, Mo., following the tornadoes that occurred in May of that year.

Simply put, Dawley just wanted to help – and Oklahoma offered her another chance to do so.

“We’ve been wanting to plan a mission trip,” said Dawley. “After the tornado in Oklahoma, I decided I wanted to go to Oklahoma and help out.”

What makes Dawley different from many teenagers looking into mission trips is the fact she planned this and pulled it together on her own.

Looking online for trips, she found an organization – Adventures in Mission – that was going to Oklahoma City.

“I realized I just needed to sign up and get a group together and get the money and drive down there,” she said.

Now Dawley, Jennifer Doody, Hanna Smith, and Max and Gavin Jacobs will make the five-day trip. They will stay at a church in Oklahoma City, and had to raise more than $2,400 for the trip.

Dawley isn’t the only one excited. Doody made the trip with Dawley back in 2011, and calls this newest trip “an awesome opportunity.”

“It’s definitely a humbling experience,” she said. “One, it helps bring communities together, but it also makes you realize how good you have it.

“One day you go from living an ordinary day. The next day, a tornado hits, and you lose everything.”

None of the group is sure what exactly the mission trip will call for. In Joplin in 2011, the group helped with the school system, riding on the school bus with children and helping them on and off the bus. Because of the sheer level of destruction, students had a hard time navigating the once-familiar streets.

“When you first drive up, and the buildings are up, it doesn’t seem that bad,” said Jane Doody, one of the chaperones and Jennifer’s mother. “But then you reach the end of the street, and you just see this leveled neighborhood, where hundreds of houses used to be, just flattened by the tornado.”

Knowing that others are facing this is what makes Dawley so excited to help out.

“When going on with life, you should give back,” she said. “I want to take every chance I can get to give back.”