The application period is now open for a program that brings hundreds of youth to the community on a summer mission to make needed repairs for local homeowners.

Group Mission Trips will return to Winchester and Clark County July 5-11. More than 400 youth and 125 adults from 15 states will visit the county to work on dozens of homes for individuals and families in need. Campers will do minor repairs, weatherization, building and repairing porches, steps and wheelchair ramps, painting and more at no cost to the homeowner.

Applications from homeowners in need will be accepted until March 2. Applications are available at Clark County Community Services, 30 Taylor Ave. Those who submitted applications last year should submit a new application this year.

In the summer of 2019, 414 youth gathered in Winchester for the first Group Mission Trips in the community. They stayed at Campbell Junior High School and worked on 60 homes. Campers came from more than a dozen states.

Debbie Fatkin, executive director of Clark County Community Services, which is one of the agencies facilitating the program locally, said there were 180 applications submitted last year. Of those, 120 were approved and submitted for consideration to Group Mission Trips.

In addition to the 60 homes worked on by campers, an additional 15 homes had repairs done by local churches, Fatkin said.

“(Group Mission Trips) is very specific about what they can do,” Fatkin said.

“They do porch and deck repairs, wheelchair ramps, paint indoors and outdoors,” Shannon Cox, chairman of the local Salvation Army, another facilitating organization, said. “They do minor roof repairs. They’ll fix or construct steps.”

Fatkin said as applications are received she verifies that the applicant is the homeowner, as rental properties are not eligible for the project. She also verifies that the applicant is in need, based on income.

“Anyone can fill out an application,” she said. “You don’t have to be a client at Community Services. And even though the deadline is technically March 2, we will continue to accept applications. Those homes that are not selected by the mission groups might be selected by local churches or others who are interested in helping.”

Group Mission Trips is a faith-based organization in Aurora, Colorado, and has been helping with repairs in communities across the U.S. since the early 1990s. The primary mission of the agency is to give teenagers opportunities to “encounter Jesus through serving others.”

To bring the mission teams to Clark County, Cox will need to raise $25,000.

“We raised that much plus some last year,” he said. “We used what excess we raised last year to help those who were not selected during the week-long visit. I’m in the process of beating on doors, begging and pleading; just doing all I can to raise the money.”

Those interested in making donations can call Cox at 859-437-0135 or drop off donations at CCCS.

Cox said he is passionate about bringing the mission back to Clark County because of how it benefits the community.

“One of my passions is that everybody has a decent place to live,” he said. “I’m especially concerned about elderly people who are stuck in their homes or can’t get up and down from their porch because of the state of them. That’s dear to me.”

Fatkin said she received positive feedback from her clients who benefited from last year’s mission, and they are as happy about spending time with the youth as they are about the repairs to their homes.

One beneficiary wrote, “Watching the youth come from different places brings back many good memories of my own children. Their friendliness with each other and towards me was very rewarding and it showed God’s love does not change over the many years. I’m so pleased with the work that was done. Workers went above and beyond their work list to do extra jobs that I asked them to do. I feel safer going out on my deck.”

Fatkin said most of the projects are ones that would not be able to be completed if it weren’t for the mission trip, and the benefits of the repairs extend beyond the individual homeowners.

“We had one person tell us that the group was out in the trailer park where they live and the improvements there were just huge,” she said. “It kind of goes to show that if a property is taken care of, it encourages other people to take care of their stuff. It’s a win-win for Clark County.”

While the primary goal is for homeowners to see repairs done in their homes, Cox said so much more comes out of the week.

“The greatest thing is the joy that everyone experiences by seeing these kids interact with the homeowners,” Cox said. “And seeing the faces of the people who live there and knowing that these people feel safer in their homes. Some of these people really, really need the work done and just can’t afford it.”