Hunger started to kick in for Sarah Keirstead about three hours into her 30-hour famine.
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She
clutched in her hand an index card with the name and age of a child
suffering from pains like hers everyday.
Sarah and 13 youth group members recently participated in the fast to raise funds for World Vision, an international Christian humanitarian organization that helps poverty-stricken children in third world countries and parts of the United States. The group had nothing but water and juice from March 20 at 4:30 a.m. to March 21 at 10:30 a.m. To pass the time, the teens played games. Every five hours they took out their index cards to think about and pray for the children who suffer from hunger everyday. "It was sad because all the kids [on the index cards] were 8 or 9," Sarah said. "It is just sad that they have to starve when we think going without food for 30 hours is drastic, when it's really nothing." This is the second year the youth group organized the 30-hour famine. To date, they have raised $1,300 from friends, family and corporations. Every dollar collected provides a day's worth of food and care for one child. The group also is in the process of collecting money for well construction in third world countries, so people can drink clean and healthy water. Jim and Donna Bacchiocchi, youth group leaders, said the teenagers enjoyed the event last year and raised $2,200. Donna said the group didn't fully realize its impact at first, but World Vision regularly sent updates from 30-hour famines around the world. That helped the group realize it was part of something very big and important. Last year's grand total was $8 million, she said. "They really didn't think they mattered last year," Donna Bacchiocchi said. "But as the 30-hour famine kept being updated, the 'oohs' and 'ahhs' became bigger, and they realized they were a small part of the picture, but they definitely made the big picture." The congregation celebrated the teens' achievement with a pancake breakfast at the end of the famine. With their minds full of a new and wider perspective on hunger and poverty, the teenagers set down to filling their stomachs. Despite the discomfort, several of the teens said they planned to participate again next year. "It definitely made me feel more sympathy, and I wish I could do more for them, so I will probably do it next year and get more involved," said Britany Najarian. Brian Harris said the fast gave him a better understanding of his own eating habits, and how boredom can make a person hungrier. It made him feel regretful about how much food he eats while others in the world have so little. He said he plans to keep more active, so that he won't feel the need to eat so often. "The fundraiser is excellent, and I'm going to do it again next year," Brian said. "In my opinion it doesn't even give you a glimpse at how bad it really is. We went 30 hours, but some people go for weeks." The youth group is no stranger to community service. Every year it performs six community service events, including cooking meals for the Ronald McDonald House in New Haven and the Spooner House homeless shelter in Derby. The group also volunteers with Habitat for Humanity and cleans some of the city's nature trails. Jim Bacchiocchi said many of the people the group helps find it refreshing to see teenagers so devoted to community service. The famine and other community service projects are an extension off their faith, he said. "They are learning how to actually matter and count in society by putting some of their beliefs that they are taught through their faith into action," he said. "They are helping to feed the hungry, which is one of the things they need to do as adults as people of faith." |