The Fleming Federated Youth Group is again gearing up for its annual mission trip to the Dominican Republic.

This year, we have a group of 10 members who will be leaving Monday, July 21, and returning Saturday, July 28. Our work project will be to get the electrical trades section of the vocational school ready for students in September.

The vocational school began construction last year when we were there. Thus a lot of work has been done by hundreds of volunteers to get this goal accomplished.

Also last year, we brought supplies to the Lighthouse School, a K-12 institution that has been slowly constructed over the past several years.

A shipping container filled with shoes, desks, lockers, computers and used sports equipment arrived before we got there. Our main goal then was to fit every student with a pair of sneakers.

This year, our mission project's goal is to have a three-day summer camp for 100 teenagers who live in the village of Los Alcarrizos. This is a small squatters village outside of Santo Domingo. The average annual income is less than $1,000; many live in less than adequate housing with no clean, running water.

For the summer camp in this village, we plan to conduct sporting competitions, craft sessions, singing and fellowship as well as daily workshops dealing with teenage issues, spiritual soul searching, evangelism and more.

We hope that this will be a great learning experience for everyone involved, a chance to merge the two very different cultures and an opportunity to learn from each other what is truly important in life.

When and if we have any free time, we plan to travel around the country a bit and experience some very different customs and activities.

We are now raising money not only for our travel expenses but to also provide for the village children who will be attending our camp.

Our goal is to raise an additional $4,000 to provide accommodations, food and supplies for the campers.

So, come bring your dirty car, your bags of unwanted cans and bottles, a handful of change for that treasure that you can't pass up, an appetite, your sweet tooth and, most of all, a desire to be a part of our mission experience.

For additional ways to help, contact Diane Saxton at 889-5639 or 4398 Ridge Road, Union Springs, NY 13160, to make arrangements for can pickup or to make a tax deductible donation.

This will be Diane Saxton's seventh trip to the Dominican Republic