CATHOLIC YOUTHS ON WEEK-LONG TRIP TO RESERVATION

They had already shipped their sleeping bags and towels. Outfitted with one carry-on bag each, 40 members of the St. Vincent's and St. Mary's Catholic youth groups piled into their cars on Friday to catch a flight to Phoenix, Ariz.

The group's final destination, a Navajo and Hopi Indian reservation in Tuba, Ariz., is where the youths will stay while they complete a seven-day mission trip. Six adults and 34 youths, who will occupy trailers on the reservation during the week, will assist the Indians in various hands-on activities at the reservation.

With the help of their adult chaperones, the youths will paint and restore churches, work with disabled Navajo children, visit an alcohol recovery center, and organize a clothes pantry.

Sarah Strohmeyer, director of the St. Vincent's Youth Group, said the Indians also have some unusual tasks prepared for the youths. "It's kind of a strange cultural thing," said Strohmeyer, "but these Indians are afraid of the dead. They decorate graves, but they are terrified to go and clean them up and touch their decorations. Cleaning a reservation graveyard for them will be one of our jobs."

Although the group anticipates hours of hard work and meager living conditions, the youth directors have scheduled in some recreation time with Arizona Catholic youth groups.

Rebecca Mattes, a 15-year-old member of the St. Vincent's Youth Group, said, "We really just want to help people, but I hope we can have a little bit of fun, too."

Some group members, like 16-year-old Ben Edwards, have other motivations for taking the trip.

"This is a culture and an ethnic group that I don't know much about," said Edwards. "If I can, along with helping them out, I'm looking forward to finding out as much as I possibly can about them."

Both youth groups have worked diligently to raise funds for their expedition. Strohmeyer organized a garage sale, a car wash, and a "bull-drop" in order to raise money for the trip. A bull-drop is a game in which a bull is released into a field which has been divided into squares. Whoever has taken the square where the bull evacuates is the winner.

"Even though a bull-drop revolves around a rather sordid event, it is a fun and interesting way to earn money," Strohmeyer said. "We collected most of our money from the bull-drop by itself."

The youth groups' efforts were complemented by several private donations.

Strohmeyer feels that she and the others going on the trip also have their congregations' spiritual support. The churches received over 1,700 prayer pledges, and the members of both churches will continue a prayer vigil for the entire week that the group is in Arizona.

"Even though only 40 of us get to go, because of their support it feels like the whole parish mission is making the trip," she said.

When the group returns, the members will hold a post-trip party. Later in the week they will report on their mission trip to the members of their congregations.