Spending a summer of service

Angelique Flores

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- While some come to Surf City to enjoy the sand and

surf, a group of teens are spending most of their time at the corner of

Yorktown Avenue and Florida Street.

The group is giving Habitat for Humanity a hand in building two homes.

Thirteen 16- and 17-year-olds, mostly from the East Coast, have signed

up for a summer camp through the American Jewish Society for Service that

has brought them to Orange County for volunteer work.

The group arrived in the city about a month ago to a large empty dirt

lot. Now, the foundation has been laid in preparation for two

single-family homes for low-income families.

“We definitely did a lot even though it doesn’t look like it,” said

Ilana Jerud, 16, of New Jersey. “But it’s stuff that needed to get done.”

The service organization offers a six-week summer camp for high school

students who have completed the 10th grade and are at least 16. The New

York-based group was founded 50 years ago to provide a volunteer

experience for teens and to assist with construction on projects in

communities throughout the country.

Most of the camp projects include housing projects, such as replacing

windows, painting homes, building community centers and rehabilitating

homeless shelters. The campers must pass an application process and pay a

$2,500 tuition plus air fare expenses.

“They are a special group of kids to do this when they could be at

home with their friends,” camp director Jonathan Hirsh said.

Before coming to Huntington Beach, where they’ve spent most of their

time, the students performed landscaping work in Santa Ana and Stanton.

But the summer camp hasn’t been all work. The teens have been able to

enjoy Huntington Beach, as well as trips to San Diego and Los Angeles.

The group is staying with counselors from the Jewish organization at a

Habitat for Humanity house in Rancho Santa Margarita, where the teens

wake up at 5 a.m. and arrive at their work site at 7 a.m. The

sun-drenched workers toil until 3:30 p.m. All the training the teens have

received has been on the job.

“Building a house isn’t as easy as it looks,” Jerud said.

Though it’s been hard work, the students are still having fun working

together. And though they could have picked a more restful way to spend

the summer, many said they would do it again.

“I wanted to do community service and help give back to people in

need,” said Jamie Sloyer, 16, of Long Island. “The work has been hard and

challenging. In the end it will be rewarding.”

Today is the group’s last day of work. Habitat for Humanity will

finish where the teens have left off.