Nine students and two chaperones accepted the challenge to spend a weekend  looking at some of the poverty in Minneapolis, learning about its causes and doing some work at a homeless shelter.

These nine students were CeeJay Schaffener, Daniela Wolfe, Renae Ramsden, Mary Graner, Corey Piper, Chloe Trainor, Caitlin Olson, Alex Schell, and Emily Wobig. Chaperoning them were Bruce and Jenny Carpenter.

The group stayed at the Urban Service Center in Minneapolis, they arrived  on Friday, November 8th and left on Sunday, November 10th. Over the weekend they went to a homeless shelter and volunteered cleaning and organizing the building. They also played a Jeopardy game that gave them facts on the poverty in the area.  They participated in a poverty simulation, where they were given a family and a life situation and we had to figure out how to survive and use their money wisely.

CeeJay Shaffner said, “We learned a lot about poverty in the Twin Cities and it was definitely worth my time to go on this trip. ”

“It was a fun and worthwhile experience. I hadn’t been on a CCMP trip before, so it interesting to learn what they are all about,” added Renae Ramsden.

The Urban Plunge is part of Cotter’s Cross Cultural Ministry program or  CCMP.  CCMP will be putting together another trip like this one in the near future.   These weekend trips are one way of introducing the students to the longer mission trips that are available over the summer, though some of the students on the urban plunge have participate in summer trips as well.