While one group of Wilson students was in the Dominican Republic on a service learning trip during January break, another group was in New Bern, NC, working alongside a team from Lend A Hand, a Presbyterian disaster agency.

Seven people from Wilson and eight from Lend A Hand repaired a half-dozen homes in the New Bern area by painting, repairing drywall, shoring up rotted joists, and replacing flooring.

The team put in over five hundred volunteer hours over the course of a week.

Wilson Chaplain Derek Wadlington shared "What I love about the trip is watching students learn new skills, like using a variety of power tools and problem solving, and see how they grow in confidence over the course of the week. Many of the Lend A Hand volunteers are in their sixties and seventies, and it is awesome to watch two very different demographic groups work alongside each other and spend time teaching and learning from each other. And, when the opportunity arises, students who are able to interact with homeowners learn about the impact of giving their time, and the gratitude that homeowners have for people traveling six hours from home to spend a week helping others."