Music trip: noun 1. reward for hard work put into practices and performances by band/choir members, often entailing a few performances and lots of entertainment (e.g. Six Flags, Disneyland or somewhere exotic); 2. an enticement by a school to convince students to join band and/or choir classes. 3. a service-oriented trip, designed to use God-given talents of music and a love for people, to make the lives of others better.
This year Nita Yuros, Columbia Adventist Academy (CAA) music director, chose the third definition and headed to Paradise, Calif., with the band and choir to help victims of the Paradise Camp Fire. “This year I wanted to begin a new tradition of service on our music trip,” she explains. “Students would still have the opportunity of performing and sharing the quality music that hours of practice brought and, in addition, share the focus of giving instead of getting. Complaints from previous trips were about the lack of food and entertainment time, but you know that every person on this trip experienced the incredible blessing of sharing and serving when the only complaint was about not getting to return the following day to the place where they had served and felt needed. In the end, many more people were rewarded — both students and community members — and I’d do it again in a heartbeat … or maybe even a drumbeat.”
Chad Carlton, staff member and boyhood resident of Paradise, participated in the trip. “Seeing the church where I was baptized and preached my first sermon reduced to a pile of rubble caused my heart to ache. I am thankful we were able to bring encouragement and hope to people I know and care about,” he says. He expressed joy in witnessing students providing relief and assistance to victims incredibly grateful for teenagers willing to help them. One relief worker in the community told the students they revived his hope in their generation.
CAA’s musical mission was a partnership between the school and constituent churches who helped fund the trip, including hundreds of dollars in gift cards from Paradise businesses for Camp Fire victims. David Smith, Meadow Glade Church youth pastor, helped organize the trip and was impacted by “the victim’s stories of devastating loss and miraculous survival.”
In addition to the work performed in the community, several students interviewed victims. They plan to release a short film with stories and testimonies on CAA’s website, www.CAAschool.org.
There is no running water in Paradise, Calif., so CAA students distributed up to five cases per resident through a partnership with the Paradise Irrigation District and the Hope Center.
Students prepare for the daily distribution of bottle water to Paradise residents.
CAA students unload and organize truckloads of supplies at the Hope Center's Oroville, Calif., warehouse.
CAA student Alex Hernandez cleans out a classroom at Paradise Adventist Academy during CAA's recovery efforts from the Nov. 8, 2018 Camp Fire.
CAA student Elizabeth Miu cleans out a classroom at Paradise Adventist Academy during CAA's recovery efforts from the Nov. 8, 2018 Camp Fire.
CAA students unload and organize truckloads of supplies at the Hope Center's Oroville, Calif., warehouse.
CAA students share hope through music while traveling to Paradise, Calif., to minister to victims of the Camp Fire.
CAA students share hope through music while traveling to Paradise, Calif., to minister to victims of the Camp Fire.
CAA students recycle burned cans at the sight of the historic Rock House Restaurant in Yankee Hill, Calif., following the Camp Fire.
In every Paradise neighborhood CAA students visited they found cars still setting where their garages had burned down around them.
