Church youth group finds meaning in clean bathrooms

Mykenna Hadl feels good when she helps people.

Hadl, 13, and two other members of the Trinity United Methodist Church youth group have been doing a lot of that lately — feeling good while helping people.

The youth group recently decided to clean a couple of local bathrooms.

“I want to change Ottawa,” Patricia Messier, youth pastor at the church, 628 N Cedar St., said. “I think there are ways you can change the outside.”

The group cleaned the bathrooms of several local businesses and convenience stores.

“They felt really good,” Messier said. “We had a discussion about whether it really mattered.”

Hadl’s mother is the manager at one of the businesses. She said seeing her daughter help out the community was excellent.

“More of that should be done,” Kelly Hadl-Raby said. “We’re not around our own kids all the time to make sure they are going out and helping others.”

Hadl’s cousin, Amanda Raby, also is a part of the group, which brought its own cleaning supplies to the businesses.

“It was not that bad because people actually kept their bathrooms clean,” 12-year-old Raby said. “We didn’t have nasty, nasty bathrooms.”

Since the youth group seemed to enjoy the experience, Messier said they may plan to do something else to help the community in the near future.

“We want to help our community and our world,” she said. “We’re really into changing Ottawa.”

Hadl wouldn’t mind another round of bathroom cleaning. She just wants to help the community.

“I think we were trying to accomplish helping others and getting our name out there,” she said. “We want to let people know we want to help.”