Ramona Youth Collaborative members will learn the value of helping others by building a home for a family in Ensenada, Mexico this weekend, organizers said.<\/p>\n
The project, from Friday, Jan. 16 to Sunday, Jan. 18, will give the Ocampo Ortega family a house with two small bedrooms, a kitchen and living room, said Ray Swavely, director of the Ramona Youth Collaborative who is co-leader of the house build.<\/p>\n
The house is \u201cnothing super fancy but a lot nicer than the family\u2019s current situation,\u201d Swavely said.<\/p>\n
The Ocampo Ortega family \u2014 a 27-year-old mother, 28-year-old father and 5-year-old son in addition to a 5-year-old adopted son \u2014 have only basic shelter now, he said.<\/p>\n
This is the first construction project for Ramona Youth Collaborative\u2019s 20 or so members. The group was organized last June by four Ramona churches \u2014 First Congregational Church of Ramona, Ramona United Methodist Church, Spirit of Joy Lutheran Church and St. Mary\u2019s-in-the-Valley Episcopal Church.<\/p>\n
Organizers said their aim is to create an inclusive environment for teens and young adults while welcoming the LGBTQ+ community. Their outings have included beach bonfires and food distributions.<\/p>\n
Ramona resident Raelynn Aanenson, 20, said she will be participating. The Grossmont College student said she is looking forward to helping the family get established in a new and better home.<\/p>\n
After watching the construction industry through her family\u2019s Tenant Space Inc. business, Aanenson said she\u2019s also curious about how the Mexico building project will unfold in only three days.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so blessed in my life, so to give back is important to me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Partnering on the house project is Chula Vista United Methodist Church, which regularly organizes Mexico home builds under the direction of Pastor Brian Parcel.<\/p>\n
Swavely, who has worked in the construction industry for a dozen years in plumbing and general construction, has been participating in mission trips with the Chula Vista church since 2020. Aries Ramirez, youth director for the church, is leading the trip with Swavely.<\/p>\n
Altogether, 97 volunteers will be building four houses that weekend in conjunction with the Christian organization YUGO Ministries, Swavely said. The Ensenada program encourages the rebuilding of Mexico by working with local churches, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYUGO houses us and vets the location,\u201d Swavely said. \u201cThey help choose the family, provide a dorm location to house and feed us, and offer worship services twice a day in Mexico.\u201d<\/p>\n
The crew will spend the first day hammering nails to get the framing, walls and part of the roof installed along with pre-painting the structure. The next day involves finishing the roof and interior including the electrical. The final day will be spent decorating and adding finishing touches to the home.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the things that turn a house into a home for the family,\u201d Swaveley said.<\/p>\n
The project will give Ramona Youth Collaborative participants a chance to learn a new trade or discover a passion for construction by working with tools.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving this skillset gives them confidence to tackle new challenges,\u201d Swavely said.<\/p>\n
He hopes to repeat the house build with the Ramona Youth Collaborative next year and get more volunteers involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve done a couple different mission trips with two organizations and this is my favorite because I get to see the beginning, middle and end of the project,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I get to see the impact on those who have a safe shelter, knowing I did something to contribute to that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ramona Youth Collaborative members will learn the value of helping others by building a home for a family…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":513898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,15027,82830,3549,7264,9656,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-513897","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-ramona-sentinel","12":"tag-ramona-sentinel-news","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-uncategorized","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115889753237855152","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}