I think it was in 1986, there was an announcement in the St. Dominic Savio (rip dominic) bulletin that the parish needed basketball coaches. That small blurb changed my life. Katie, my sister, and I volunteered to coach. We signed up to do it separately, but soon were given the 3rd and 4th grade girls. Some of these youngsters never left our lives. Katie got a lifelong friend in Maureen, and I got Mary Kate and Holly in my life (Katie got first pick, that is for you HTG). Those kids and the teams over the next couple of years were the reason I switched from an engineer to a teacher.
Fast forward, a decade or so and Katie's husband Brian asked me to help coach my nieces' basketball team. On that team were my twin nieces and another set of twins, Sam and Megan. So I got to have Mary Kate and Holly in my life since 4th grade and Sam and Megan have really been in my life since their 7th grade year.
There was a quiet kid on this year's Biloxi trip and I was not sure she was enjoying herself or getting the most of the wonderful Back Bay experience. I probably just missed it though, as on her last day, this young high school student was literally sprinting to the chop saw and then running the cut piece of flooring back into the house. The smile and excitement on her face was pure happiness. The joy of giving, the joy of service, the joy of working hard when our trips work best all of that falls into place.
Sam and Megan, were the first of the lifers, and I had that feeling almost right away their first year. Sam and Megan were the same age as almost everyone in the trailer, but they were soon cooking all the meals, brownie treats at night, and even a chicken wing dip for the girls after they finished a hard day's work. No one told them to do all this extra work, they just did it. Marian Wright Edelman talks about the life lesson Assign Yourself . Sam and Megan have been seeing a need, and completing the task on their own since that first trip. Leaving on that first trip Sam looked at me and said, "It was nice having my own house for a week." She was lamenting the next 51 weeks.
Sam and Megan started a movement of incredible young women that really and truly believe that the one week they spent building houses and giving dignity to those on the margins is their raison d'etre. There were 14 young women a couple of them on just their second trip, but the majority were on their 4th or their 7th, or for Sam and Megan their 11th straight trip to the Gulf Coast. They have started their own cult of remarkable people who really do walk in the footsteps of Christ during this week. You have to join us some time to really feel and understand what this week means to us.
In the early days of the trip, we had some students and parents that would go on back to back years, and we still have good people who do that. But Sam and Megan started this tradition of just coming back every year. They are now professionals and have to take vacation and juggle work commitments to be there, but they have been there and will be there every year. This is the lifetime of service we talk to 16 year olds and their parents in January. On the Share Kindness trip, we do not want students to just check the box for service, we want them to stand with those on the margins, meet new friends, and recognize that this is what community looks like.
Each year, I am older, heavier and less in tune with students. Who knew Facebook was over? But Sam and Megan continue to show these high school students what empowerment means, what leadership means, what compassion means. There has not been a challenge I have given them or more likely they have taken on their own that they have not succeeded in. I remember meeting them at a Breadco and telling them, we were bringing 130 people to Biloxi and they were going to be responsible for feeding them all. They told me they could do it, were smart enough to meet with a restauranteur and caterer from their parish, and made a plan and did it. In fact they did it too well, after the meal was complete they would often go back to the kitchen for special orders like a grilled cheese sandwich at 8 pm. Or baked treats at 9:30. They were near the point of collapse when I finally had to tell the group NO MORE SPECIAL ORDERS. Sam and Megan would have continued to have been to be of service to the group if I had not stopped them.
It confuses people when we say the twins, because they really do not look alike and although I have combined them into one super being in these words. They are unique individuals with their own talents. Sam went through a brief Goth phase, but before that and after that she has been a smiling presence in the Back Bay kitchen. Craig Steenkamp called her mom years ago and she really is the mother to these "orphaned" high schoolers. She is very approachable and has mentored and nurtured so many young people to the best of their talents. Sam is the gentle touch and the constant smile on the trip. It is not surprising that Sam is now a maternity nurse giving young ones love the moment of their birth.
Years ago, on their second trip we were completing a house for a Vietnamese woman, Mrs. Nguyen. I can only imaging the trials and tribulations in the life of a 60 something Vietnamese woman, but it was our job to make her happy and complete her house. She was not supposed to be living in the house, but she slept every night on two 2 x 4's wrapped in a sheet as her pillow keeping an watchful eye on her partially completed house. She was supposed to be sleeping in the FEMA trailer the government had given her. While we were working at her house, the government came to take her trailer. A couple of rough men who were being paid by the trailer were hauling it away with little regard for her possessions still in the trailer. This sometimes happens when government in Washington does not really understand poverty at the local level. I got a call to rush to the site, I was confronted with 25 girls hanging over a wooden deck sobbing as they had never seen poverty or the frustration of the real world up close. I tried my best to talk to each student to give them some comfort, because I had no answers. All of a sudden, I heard the djeet, djeet of a couple of screw guns coming from the house. Megan and Jessi Pachak on their second year of the trip were working hard to finish building a closet. I tried to engage in conversation and was greeted with angry glares. I insisted they talk about what they were going through. They answered simply, "We cannot help Mrs. Nguyen, by crying on the porch, we have to get her house DONE!"
Megan is shaking her head, reading this story, she is too humble to accept the praise I want to give her. She always tells me it was nothing. But this is the beauty of who Megan Manuel is--she is always working to get the task at hand done, she is always working. She will mentor a young rookie on the job, but Megan will usually pick someone with a little bit of talent and work ethic. Megan does not want to be slowed down by giggles or slacking, she comes to Mississippi to work and get the job done. I can always count on whatever site that Megan is on, the work is getting done. Usually that means, Craig and I have to look for another job site, because the moment the work is done, she is ready for the next task.
Megan and Sam are the best of friends and great sisters. They make each other better people and they always have each other's backs. So today we had breakfast and they already have ideas for their 12th trip, one idea we are mulling that they suggested would totally change the trip. They are always working to make this trip better and always thinking about ways we can do more for the people we meet in Biloxi, Gulfport and beyond.
Probably the two best people I have ever worked with, and they started as kids!!, are Sam and Megan. They have eased the burdens of our friends in Mississippi. Two different, amazing, compassionate, giving, selfless young women who share really only one trait.
They both look great in Teal.
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