Selfless service is YouthWorks’ gift to Lynners

LYNN – Kiran Thadhani looks forward to reuniting with her Georgia Tech friends this month but the Atlanta resident will miss spending afternoons playing “Drip Drip Drop” and other games with kids at Washington Street Baptist Church.Thadhani is the site director of YouthWorks, a nationwide organization that wraps up a summer’s worth of youth-oriented programs and support for local senior care and developmental disability support organizations today.Thadhani has spent two summers living in Washington Baptist’s basement and organizing programs for 70 or more high school students from across the country who have converged on the big brick church every week since mid-June.During an average week, teenagers from North Carolina, Colorado, Pennsylvania and Minnesota traveled to Lynn as part of YouthWorks’ nationwide program. Based in Minneapolis, YouthWorks is a non-profit organization that describes itself in press releases as providing “youth mission opportunities to churches and faith-based groups.”The participants range in school grade levels from junior high to high school seniors. Their families pay $200 or more to cover trip costs, including meals and program materials.Washington Baptist has an 8-year-old relationship with YouthWorks that has made the church the epicenter of annual efforts to provide play opportunities to local children and benefit Lynn organizations.”We like the idea of them being of service to Lynn and reaching out to kids in the neighborhood. They always put together a great college staff,” Washington Baptist Rev. Eric Nelson said.Nelson said the group’s high school-age participants helped out this summer at My Brother’s Table, the Boys and Girls Club camp program and the PACE and Briarcliff Lodge senior day programs.”Our focus is one the homeless, children and people with disabilities,” Thadhani said.After finishing her spring semester studying international affairs at Georgia Tech, Thadhani and other Eastern United States YouthWorks participants attended training sessions in Philadelphia. The group attracts teens from a variety of denominations including, Nelson said, an increasing number of Catholic participants.”St. Mary’s provided us with showers this year,” Thadhani said.Thadhani will travel to Philadelphia for a site director debriefing before heading home and preparing for a new school year. Before she leaves Lynn, she will say goodbye to young friends like Cobbet School third-grader Chiya Stringer.”I love this community. It is completely different from growing up in the Bible Belt,” Thadhani said.