Hundreds of Seventh-day Adventist youth have registered to spend a week in New York City helping in the church’s coordinated relief effort in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. The youth-led project “We Care-NYC” starts this week and continues through May 5, 2002.

Youth leaders want to both step-up the Adventist presence in the city and highlight the overall “We Care” theme of the project. The words “We Care” will be displayed on signs behind school bands playing in the street. Pathfinder groups will bake bread and attach a “We Care” sticker to the wrapper. Adventurer youth groups will pass out lollypops with the same message.

Some students, those 18 and older, will be working with the Red Cross. Others will be talking with people on the street, cleaning parks and apartments—“whatever needs to be done,” say organizers.

The project is a joint venture of the North American church’s youth department, the Center for Youth Evangelism, and the Adventist Church in the Greater New York and Northeastern regions.

“I’m excited about the response and the youth are excited to go,” says James Black, youth ministries director for the church in North America. He says there has been a dramatic response to the project from Adventist churches across the United States. “The last number I heard was 500 kids, now there’s 700 registered!”

Participants in “We Care-NYC” will stay in apartments, schools and gyms. They will pay their own way—$275 to come to New York for one week to help out in the relief effort.