Teens come together to help the community

More than 50 teens were involved in a community service/youth rally last weekend that started in Palmer and culminated Saturday afternoon. The Hatcher Pass Winter Youth Blast started early Friday morning when 55 kids -- a combination of youth groups from several area churches and their friends -- met at the Palmer Salvation Army to help put together Thanksgiving baskets to be given to needy families. The groceries came from a food drive by the Salvation Army.

According to one of the organizers of the event, Pastor Tom Hoffman of the Fairview Loop Baptist Church, the idea for the event began with their youth group and snowballed from there when youth leaders Tom and Kristi Pine starting making contacts with other churches.

"Everybody just jumped on board and the thing took off," Hoffman said.

Hoffman said he was pleased the kids were going to be doing some community service work as part of the Blast.

"This event is not just for fun," Hoffman said, "they will be giving back to the community, too."

He said helping with the food baskets seemed perfect for the group.

"The Salvation Army did the food drive," Hoffman said, "we will just be providing a whole bunch of young, energetic workers."

After the basket-making, the teens then moved on for a couple hours of singing, skits and plays at the First Baptist Church in Palmer. From there, the kids loaded onto rented buses and headed into Anchorage for some neon bowling, followed by the Wayne Watson/Clay Cross concert at the Anchorage Baptist Temple.

Hillside Baptist Church in Anchorage opened their doors for the evening allowing the youngsters to spend the night in town. Saturday they began the day with more rally, skits and music before returning to Wasilla.

"This should be a fun-filled, non-stop activity," Hoffman said Thursday, before the event. He said if things went well they were hoping to organize another youth blast next year.