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Hurst teens helping to rebuild Rockport during Spring Break

Until their arrival in Coastal Bend, they had only seen news accounts of the devastation

The cleanup effort continues in Rockport six months after Hurricane Harvey. While there is still much to be done, the effort would not be moving as fast if it weren't for volunteers.

In fact, 300 teens are giving up their Spring Break to lend a hand.

"I'm just helping people clean up their fallen trees, you know?" volunteer Samuel Ganske said.

"I didn't think there'd be that much destruction still left," volunteer Jazlyne Ramos said.

"We're doing good for someone else," volunteer Logan Maddox said.

The group of teens came all the way from the Shady Oaks Baptist Church in Hurst, Tx, to spend their Spring Break working.

"I'm proud of my peers for coming down here and doing something that they didn't have to," Ramos said. "Taking our time from our Spring Break, but we did something nice for someone else and I'm just glad we did."

"The devastation is just unreal," team leader Allison Taylor said.

Taylor said the young volunteers want to be here.

"Purely volunteers from the church who signed up and paid to come on this trip," Taylor said.

Until their arrival in Coastal Bend, they had only seen news accounts of the devastation.

"The amount of debris, the piles on the side of the highway, it just really touched, I think, really all of our hearts to see firsthand," Taylor said. "To see what the storm did."

"These volunteers that are coming and youth guides going and serving you are avenues of home for these people," Youth Admissions Pastor Jordan Mims said.

Mims said First Baptist Church is also host to the volunteer reception center where volunteers are provided with places to sleep, like a giant tent. They are also served meals throughout the day.

"We have at least 14 different groups right now. We sent out this morning 280 teenagers -- high school students, college students -- throughout the community to go and serve here in Rockport," Mims said.

While there are so many compelling stories from the volunteers, one from 13-year-old Jazlyne Ramos summed it all up.

"As I see all this destruction around me, it just makes me wish I could still do more. Like a month, not a week," Ramos said. "Like it's just really, it's really heartbreaking and devastating."

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