The impacts of hurricane Katrina continue to be felt in South Mississippi, as residents continue to clean up damage from the storm, rebuilding homes and businesses. But not all of these aftershocks are negative, as a church group from Laurel, Md., prepares to spend a week in Laurel repairing hurricane damage and running a four day camp designed to help children emotionally recover from the trauma of enduring Katrina.

United Methodist Church (UMC) of Laurel, Md., will be sending a 23 member team down to Mississippi from July 14-22, to assist in the implementation of a four day long “Camp Noah” program,” and various construction efforts around Laurel.

“We have 23 people coming down this weekend,” said Anne Marie Miller, director of youth for UMC. “Six of these people will be working on various construction and repair projects, while the rest will be leading Camp Noah.”

Camp Noah is a day camp designed to assist children that have been through a traumatic disaster, helping them confront and process their fear, anger and grief. This program, designed by the Lutheran Social Services of Minnesota, utilizes arts and crafts and Bible-based teaching to provide a non-threatening atmosphere for children to work through their experiences.

“We were trained in this program in Alexandria, Va.,” said Miller. “This program has been used all across the area affected by the hurricane, and has seen remarkable success.”

The camp will take place at West Laurel Methodist Church and Miller said that they are planning on 50 children in attendance. The camp will kick off Sunday night with a cookout for the Maryland team members, the children participating in the camp and their parents.

Pastor Dennis Whitmore of UMC contributed to the relief effort in a unique fashion on Wednesday, as he embarked on a bicycle trip from Maryland to Mississippi, with the purpose of raising awareness among Methodist churches of the needs of those affected by Katrina.

Whitmore will culminate the trip by preaching at West Laurel United Methodist Church. “Riding for Roofs,” as the trip is called, will also raise direct relief for hurricane victims as a number of individuals and organizations have agreed to pledge money on the basis of miles traveled by Whitmore.

“The city council of Laurel, Md., pledged one dollar a mile,” said Miller. “We’ve also had a large church in Washington D.C., pledge the same, and a number of individuals have made individual donations towards the fund.”

The winter of 2005 saw Laurel, Md., adopt Laurel, Miss., as a sister town after the hurricane. That decision sparked Miller’s interest and led to the decision in bringing the team to Jones County.

“I also work very heavily with missions and the youth,” said Miller. “We’ve never had a missions team that left Maryland, they always worked around here. So when I heard about the city adopting Laurel, I thought this might be an opportunity for our youth.”

Ultimately Miller said that this trip is an opportunity for UMC to serve the children of Laurel.

“We are going down to help the youth, to help those who have been hurt and who are afraid after the storm,” said Miller. “This is ultimately a mission of hope.”

For more information, or to track Whitmore’s progress, please see http://fumcl.org/missiontrip.