By Lindsay Tice,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – In Connecticut, they could have kicked off their summer at camp. They could have played tennis at a local club, hung around a sun-drenched pool, gone sailing.

Instead, 13-year-old Lauren Becker and her friends traveled 300 miles to paint a steamy Lewiston soup kitchen and serve meals to homeless and near-homeless families. They spent days helping others.

And they loved it.

“Next year I’m bringing all my friends because this was such a total blast,” Becker said, taking a quick break after the Jubilee Center’s lunch rush.

For the last 16 summers, middle-schoolers from St. Luke’s Parish, an Episcopal Church in Darien, Conn., have traveled to Maine to volunteer at Trinity Episcopal Church’s Jubilee Center. They hold annual fund-raisers at home to pay for their food, transportation and a donation to the center.

The center gets the help it needs. The kids learn that they can make a difference.

“It makes you feel good inside,” said 12-year-old Maggie Drake.

For some of the young volunteers, it’s the first time they’ve met people who are homeless, hungry, jobless or poor. In Darien, the median household income is more than $146,000, according to the 2000 Census, the second-highest in New England. In downtown Lewiston, most households make less than $20,000 and one out of every two people lives below the federal poverty line.

“It’s something that when you’re 13 years old you don’t think about,” said Charlie Benzyk, 22. He was a young volunteer in 1997 and 1998 and came back this year as a chaperone.

To encourage connections, each of the kids gets a small wooden cross necklace at the beginning of the trip and are told to give their necklace to someone they meet. Many of the kids had given their necklaces away just a couple of days into the trip.

Despite their differences, the Darien kids and Jubilee Center clients found ways to connect. During break, a few boys played outside with a pre-schooler who had come with his mother for lunch. Another boy floated around the hot dining room, getting meals for people in wheelchairs.

Sam Fuller, a tall 12-year-old in a paint-splattered Norwalk Yacht Club T-shirt, spent his break under a tree, chatting with a bearded man who makes a living working sporadic day jobs at constructions sites and warehouses.

“Builds your muscles,” the man said, flexing his arm with a smile.

Fuller, like many of the kids, bonded with the families he served.

“I’ve learned really not to judge people,” he said.

The Darien kids spent five days dashing around the center. They got time off for games and for small field trips, but spent most of their days covering sickly green walls with a fresh coat of blue, planting flowers, making meals and doing repairs.

Some said they couldn’t wait to come back.

“In my opinion it’s more fun than hanging out at my beach club,” Fuller said.

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