“Volunteers Are love in Motion”
March 25, 2010
By Chris Foreman
TRIBUNE-REVIEW Monday, March 22, 2010
Adam Kunes (left) and Andrew Blythe take their RV on summer road trips to service organizations around the country. The North Huntingdon natives have created a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit, The Call to Serve. S.C. Spangler | Tribune-Review
North Huntingdon natives Adam Kunes and Andrew Blythe, who came up with the faith-based concept, are touring campuses to recruit college students to join their second service journey.
Last year, their Pittsburgh nonprofit The Call to Serve used fundraisers and donations to buy an RV. They and a friend took a month-long expedition to hurricane-ravaged New Orleans and Galveston, Texas, a Catholic youth camp in Missouri, a California agency serving people with developmental and learning disabilities, and other nonprofits along the way.
In recent weeks, Kunes, 25, and Blythe, 23, have been showing a documentary of their 2009 journey to students at several colleges in the region to promote this summer’s trip to assist nonprofits in New Orleans; Charleston, S.C.; Savannah, Ga., and Virginia Beach.
The men want their group to dispel notions that young people aren’t willing to give of themselves.
“Our goal is to show it on as many campuses as possible to give young people an opportunity to be part of something great,” said Blythe, a senior at the University of Pittsburgh majoring in athletic training.
They set an April 15 deadline for students over 21 to apply, with the goal of choosing 12 and renting two more RVs. Standout applicants, they said, will have a heart for service, a willingness to step out of their comfort zone, and a sense of humor to handle a road trip with new people.
Kunes and Blythe say they intend to make “The Big Easy” an annual destination because the idea for their group came from their 2006 meeting there during a Catholic HEART Workcamp mission trip.
“We kind of want to use that as our base each year,” said Kunes, a Pitt grad who started a media company, Rewind Memories. “New Orleans will always be on the itinerary.”
Blythe said he was moved last year by meeting the owner of one of the houses leveled by Hurricane Katrina.
“Seeing the community really coming back to life was really powerful,” he said. “Yeah, the Superdome may be open and the Saints are Super Bowl champs, but there’s a lot of help they need still.”
Another stop last year was in Brooklyn, N.Y., where they spent a day sorting and cataloging unused medical supplies for a nonprofit that sends beds, medical equipment and other items to hospitals in Africa and Haiti.
The organization shipped out about 25 tons of supplies last year that otherwise would have been dumped in landfills or incinerated, said Nick Eggers, Doc to Dock’s program coordinator.
“I thought it was such a neat idea, what they were doing,” Eggers said of The Call to Serve. “By all accounts, they were very friendly, outgoing, interesting young people and seemed very dedicated to their service.”
The duo uses social networking sites like Facebook to promote fundraisers, local service projects and sales of T-shirts to more than 1,700 fans.
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