Pathfinders and Master Guides of the Seventh-day Adventist Church on parade. - Contributed

THE COMMUNITIES of Spanish Town and Old Harbour are to benefit from a summer camp to be held at Camp Verley, near Old Harbour, St Catherine, from July 23-28. Pathfinders and Master Guides, two of the uniformed groups of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, will distribute clothing, toiletries and food to a number of children's homes, homes for the aged, and rehabilitation centres in and around Spanish Town and Old Harbour.

In addition, a number of beautification projects are planned, as well as distribution of meals to street people. Other outreach activities include street-side drama, music and puppet ministry.

Message of hope and peace

"We intend to send a strong message of hope and peace to these communities," says Pastor Blythe, youth ministries director of the West Indies Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists (WIU). "There are many negative vibes in the society and our young people are caught up in it. They are either witnesses to, or victims of the present wave of lawlessness affecting our society," he adds.

Over 2,000 delegates from North America, The Bahamas, The Cayman Islands, The Turks and Caicos Islands, Jamaica, and other parts of the Caribbean will participate in the event dubbed 'Pathfinder and Master Camporee.' It is organised by the youth department of the Adventist Church under the theme 'Total Surrender.'

The Pathfinder programme is designed for boys and girls ages 10-15 years, and is built on the model of the holistic development of the mental, physical, social and spiritual capacities of the individual.

One of the highlights of the camp is a peer-training programme by the National Council on Drug Abuse, which trains young people to be able to counsel their peers and others who are substance abusers.

"Our research shows that a great percentage of youth use alcohol, tobacco and other substances as early as age 10," says Michael Tucker, executive director of the National Council on Drug Abuse. "We welcome this opportunity to be a part of this large camp gathering because it fits into the necessity to work with our young people at this age to inform them about the negative consequences of substance abuse and ensure that the drug-abuse prevention initiatives are maintained throughout the high-school life into college," he adds.