Sydnie Wilcutt, sophomore, spent eight days this summer in Denver, Colorado working to aid those living on the streets. Wilcutt traveled with members of St. Lucas CCC, her church located in Sunset Hills. While there, the 60 high schoolers worked side-by-side with the organization Discovering Opportunities for Outreaching Reflection (DOOR) to help the homeless.

According to Wilcutt, they served lunch at a food kitchen and organized clothes for Father Woody’s Haven of Hope, which gives clothing to the homeless. For example, if someone living on the streets needed clothes for a job interview, they would be able to retrieve them from this organization.

Wilcutt said her most memorable part of the mission trip was hearing homeless people’s stories.

“Just to realize that we are all equal and [hearing] the different situations of how they ended up being homeless and not just from bad decisions they made,” Wilcutt said. “There was this one guy and he had cancer. He had to pay all of the bills and they were so expensive it caused him not to be able to pay for a house.”

When they were not helping the homeless, the mission trip group traveled into the mountains for hikes. While in the mountains DOOR officials led a time of reflection for the students about what they experienced throughout the day and their faith. The eight days of hard work for Wilcutt changed her opinion about those who are homeless through the help of DOOR.

“I’ll never look at the city the same way again,” Wilcutt said. “I’ll remember all the problems with [Denver] that I never realized were there before.”

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