The Idaho Mission Project is on a mission to serve Kootenai County, and ElderHelp of North Idaho is the first stop along the way.

About 300 youths from all over the United States will be spending time at Twinlow Camp and Retreat Center in Rathdrum throughout the summer. During their stays at the camp, the middle- and high-schoolers will be learning all about community service by helping organizations in need of volunteers.

"I’ve got volunteers aplenty," Idaho Mission Project coordinator Kathryn Cronin said Monday. "I would love to get people’s yard work done, and I'd love to have something where it's the more personal touch."

The Idaho Mission Project is a service and adventure program of Twinlow Camp. Mondays through Thursdays from June 20-Aug. 19, different church youth groups will stay for one week at a time, so each week will bring a fresh batch of young people who are eager to roll up their sleeves and help.

Cronin said this experience helps build maturity and character and sometimes ignites passions for these youths as they understand the importance of serving others.

"This is really an opportunity to put their faith in action. We are a Christian camp and these are Christian youth groups coming in, and so it is an opportunity to show them how to serve and how to be practically serving," Cronin said. "Really, how beautiful to learn to be the hands and feet of Jesus? That is really such a skill to learn and something to learn very early on."

ElderHelp of North Idaho president and founder John Corcoran said he is looking forward to having the youths help with the nonprofit's workload, which only gets bigger every year as the baby boomer generation ages. The volunteers will learn how to split and stack firewood, which ElderHelp provides to seniors in need each year, and they will conduct yard work and other tasks.

"I love the fact that we can get someone who wants to serve and make a difference in these seniors’ lives," Corcoran said. "They struggle, so this is a real bonus for them if somebody can take care of their little yard or whatever their needs are."

Twinlow Camp and Retreat Center executive director Tyler Wagner said for people to qualify for the volunteer service, they need to be ElderHelp clients, but the Idaho Mission Project is seeking more organizations to assist when the flood of volunteers arrives.

"We'd love to partner with other organizations as well in Idaho and eastern Washington," he said, adding if youth pastors or youth group leaders are looking for mission trips for their youths, he'd love to talk to them.

"(If) they need to take the kids on a mission trip and don't know how to do that, they don't have time to plan the trip, all they need to do is call us up and sign up," Wagner said. "They have to get to camp, but once they get there, we take care of all the details of how to go out and serve."

Info: 352-2671 or www.twinlow.org