TOLEDO—Working in some of the hottest, most humid weather of the summer so far, youth converged on the Toledo area June 8-13 to help people and organizations in need.

The young people — all from other states — paid $300 each for the opportunity to sleep on classroom floors at Oregon Cardinal Stritch High School, shower in the locker rooms and spend a good portion of their days painting, packing, organizing and doing other labor-intensive work.

Michael Collins, left, of Homer Glen, Ill., and Ellen Jameson of Ligonier, Pa., help reorganize toys at the Catholic Club in Toledo. The youth were among several teams that came to Toledo with Catholic Heart Workcamp to help organizations and individuals in need. (Chronicle photo by Angela Kessler)

“I enjoy meeting new people and seeing everyone’s reaction to what we’ve done,” says Nicole Klecka, a 14-year-old from Wheaton, Ill., and a member of St. Michael there. “This year, what I learned most was low income kids don’t need everything in the world to be happy.”

Nicole was one of a team assigned to work at the Catholic Club in downtown Toledo. While there, the group helped paint and clean out a warehouse of toys and supplies, organizing them into what could be cleaned and used and what should be discarded. In addition, the youth had the opportunity to work with the children at the Catholic Club one-on-one.

“One-on-one time with the kids in invaluable,” said Paul Szymanski, director of the Catholic Club. The work campers are just a fraction of the teens Mr. Szymanski works each year.

“Teens do the work five times faster than me,” he says, adding that their energy level and enthusiasm helps get tasks done in a fraction of the time and cost of hiring outside firms to complete the work.

Melanie Thomas, an adult volunteer at the Catholic Club site, is the youth minister at St. Thomas in Lenoir City, Tenn. She admits the Catholic Club is one of the more desirable locations for the campers, but emphasizes the hard work all campers do throughout the week.

“Most jobs are extremely difficult,” she says, adding many are outside scraping and painting houses or doing other labor-intensive repairs for people who otherwise could not afford to have the work done.

But it’s more than a week’s worth of hard work that attracted Ms. Thomas to Catholic Heart Workcamp.

“For them to come to something like this gives them the sense they are not a minority,” she says, explaining in their part of Tennessee, Protestants make up the majority of the population.

Catholic Heart Workcamp, as its name indicates, is geared to Catholic youth preparing to enter grades eight through 12. In addition to the mission work, the week’s schedule also includes time for Eucharistic celebration, prayer and daily Mass.

Youth groups from different parts of the country gather for a week at one of several work sites across the country. Work teams are made of youth from each of the different groups and often, they will find themselves beginning the week not knowing anyone on their team.

Ms. Thomas says what this does for the youth is put them into a social situation they may not have experienced before. The work teams are guided as they build a team and choose leaders for different aspects of the week. For example, one person may be a prayer leader, tool manager or whole team leader. The youth then, take charge, working through any situation that may arise.

A typical day begins at 6:30 a.m. for breakfast, morning prayer, an inspirational program and announcements. Work begins at about 8:30 a.m. and continues until 3 p.m. After a 4:30 p.m. Mass, dinner is served, followed by an evening program and rosary. The youth are in their rooms by 10:30 p.m.

After a long week’s worth of manual labor, each youth group is given the opportunity to venture out on their own for fun and relaxation. Ms. Thomas took her group to Cedar Point.

“For some kids and adults,” Ms. Thomas says, “they choose this as their only vacation, spending time together as the hands and feet of Christ.”