It’s difficult for Apex United Methodist Church Director of Missions Toby White to believe that a decade has past since she first began planning for a small group of youth volunteers to repair the homes of people in need.

Although the years seem to have passed too quickly they have certainly been time well spent.

Dubbed “Decade of Discipleship”, the Apex Outreach Service Project celebrated its 10th year last week with 150 volunteers repairing 18 homes in Apex, Holly Springs and Fuquay-Varina.

This year marked the largest number of participating volunteers and the most homes ever repaired in one year.

“I can’t believe it’s been 10 years,” said White. “It’s been just amazing to see how this project has grown. When we started we had maybe eight work teams and a total of 50 volunteers. Now we have 16 teams and 150 people. It was my hope that the project would grow but I’m still blown away by it.” Many of the project’s growing numbers can be attributed to the area’s growth rate over the past decade. But the statistics don’t tell the whole story.

In the past few years various businesses and churches have become involved. This year alone seven different churches sent volunteers, including churches in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Aulander, NC.

“The word is getting out about this project,” said White. “More people want to become involved. I think because of the economy a lot of churches can’t afford to send volunteers overseas so they are staying closer to home. But the biggest reason is that this is a great project and there is a real need for it right here in our own backyard.”

Unfortunately that need seems to be growing. As the economy continues to sputter more people are incurring financial difficulties.

This year volunteers encountered some of the worst living conditions in the project’s 10-year history. “We had two of the worst houses I’ve ever seen,” said White. “It’s very disheartening to know that need is in our community and most people don’t see it.”

One elderly woman recently had her power turned off and was struggling in the heat without air conditioning.

“We stepped in and took care of that,” said White. “We also had a couple of people whose stoves hadn’t been used in years because they couldn’t afford to repair them. We repaired those and also repaired a person’s refrigerator that was all rusted.

“We’re not just involved with home repairs. People have other needs as well. We were able to provide some food and some gift cards to families as well.”

Although it’s difficult to see so many people struggling with their hardships the sight of over 120 teens diligently working to make things better gives White plenty of hope for the future.

“It’s exciting to see,” said White. “You hear so quickly about all the bad things kids do. I think it’s important for people to know that kids also care about what is happening and they want to help.”