A small army of helping hands descended on Butler over the past week as 480 youths from across the nation braved 90-degree temperatures to help to refurbish and repair 53 homes in Butler County as part of the Butler Project/REACH Work Camp 2005. The church-affiliated program last brought its teenage crews to Butler in 1997 when work was concentrated on 38 homes.

The Christian work camp program, which is based in Loveland, Colo., coordinated with the Westminster Presbyterian Church in America on North Main Street for the Butler Project.

While Westminster Presbyterian does similar work each year through its own youth program, the scale of this summer's work expanded dramatically because of the nearly 500 youths brought to Butler as part of REACH.

Homes targeted for the volunteer work were selected through various social service agencies and some word-of-mouth referrals. Participating homeowners had to demonstrate that they could not do the improvement work themselves because of age, income or health reasons. And thanks to donated materials and the volunteer help, homeowners paid nothing for the work, yet the benefits were no doubt seen as priceless.

As for the teen volunteers, they too appeared to be richly rewarded by the experience. "It changes my life every time. I learn something about myself every time," is the way the 17-year-old Lindsay Hamel of New York looked at her six years of volunteer work with REACH.

REACH is an obvious win-win situation for appreciative homeowners and for the Christian teenagers who put their faith in action helping others.

Given the success of REACH, it might be worthwhile for the community of churches in Butler to consider a joint project using REACH as a model, so that more local homeowners could benefit and more local teenagers could reap the rewards of giving to others less fortunate than themselves.