Cornerstone gives more than gifts to reservation families
By Michelle Knight knight@theacorn.com

REACHING OUT- Jared Riley, second from right, high school principal at Cornerstone Christian Schools in Camarillo, and his wife, Heather, right, holding their 18month old son, Ezekiel, are joined by Melanie Bourke of Arizona, center, and her four children. The Rileys were part of a group of Camarillo volunteers who have spent the last two summers working on the Bourke's neglected home and that of their relatives who live next door on the White Mountain Apache Reservation in Arizona.

Cornerstone Christian Schools students and faculty and the local community have donated more than 300 gifts to the school's Christmas toy drive, which ended on Wednesday.

Later this month, volunteers will deliver the presents, along with donated Bibles, shoes and clothing items, to residents of the White Mountain Apache Reservation in Arizona.

The 20-year-old Cornerstone Christian Schools in Camarillo has about 600 students, from preschool through high school.

Cornerstone High School Principal Jared Riley said that American Indians suffer higher rates of depression, alcohol abuse and suicide than do most other groups in the United States. He added that the school encourages students to help others and follow the humanitarian course of Jesus Christ.

"We try to offer hope," Riley said.

Students and volunteers from the nearby Camarillo Christian Church have come to know a couple of families living on the 1-million-acre reservation set high in the Arizona mountains. For the last two summers they've spent a couple of weeks repairing the families' homes.

In 2006, school and church officials learned about a family of six living in a house with no running water, bathroom or cooking facilities. Residents had to go next door to use the bathroom.

Volunteers from the school and church traveled that summer to the Arizona reservation and worked on the family's house, installing insulation, new carpeting and dry wall; they built new front steps and painted the house. The volunteers also brought bunk beds for the children, who had been sleeping on the floor.

Meanwhile, conditions next door, where the family's relatives lived, were just as bad. Those residents used a carport with tarp walls as a bedroom, even though the area is blanketed with snow in the winter.

Volunteers returned last summer and enclosed the carport/bedroom with dry wall, installed insulation and cleaned up 9,000 pounds of trash from the area.

"It was rewarding to get so much done in such a little time," said Rob Martell, one of the 22 volunteers and Riley's father-in-law.

Martell said he's seen dire poverty outside the United States when in the Navy but was shocked to find it at home.

"To think that just a few hours away people are living in shacks with no running water or bathroom facilities," said Martell, a Camarillo real estate broker.

Martell and his wife, Ann, and 16 other volunteers will travel to the reservation on Dec. 22 and spend Christmas repairing leaky roofs on the houses and distributing toys to families.

Tyler Levasseur, a Cornerstone High School senior, admitted he had doubts about spending his summer vacation working and living without the comforts of home. The 17-year-old said once he arrived on the reservation and met the family, however, his doubts disappeared.

"I had a blast," Tyler said. "Overall you get as much out of it as the people you're helping do, if not more."

Tyler and Cornerstone freshman Nicholaus Alpers both said their efforts were more meaningful working side-by-side with the homes' occupants.

"They were very welcoming, very hospitable," Nicholaus, 15, said. "It was a great thing to get to know them better."

Riley said he and his wife, Heather, plan to return to the reservation this summer to work on more homes and would like at least 70 other volunteers to join them. More workers mean more neglected homes on the reservation can be brought up to livable conditions