CROWN POINT | Victoria Vander West held a paint brush soaked with tar. It smelled. It was sticky. And she was just told the only way to get it off was paint thinner.

"I just found out it doesn't come off," the 16-year-old from Michigan said. "It makes me a little nervous."

But the threat of permanency didn't stop Vander West from applying a coat to the foundation of the Habitat for Humanity house she was helping build in Gary.

While many high schoolers spend their summer vacation playing sports or toiling away at a summer job, Vander West and 47 other high school students have paid about $300 to be put to work by the First Christian Reformed Church, 909 E. Greenwood Ave. The week is organized by the Crown Point church and is affiliated with Youth Unlimited, a Michigan-based Christian youth ministry. The Youth Unlimited missions program is sponsoring more than 40 such retreats throughout the year.

"I came to help people out and to show them people care," Vander West said.

The house in Gary is one of six locations the high schoolers will work at over the course of the week, doing everything from water proofing a house foundation with tar to standing outside a Planned Parenthood clinic to tell clients there are alternatives to abortion. The participants are divided into eight groups and rotate locations each day.

Jamie Bogaard, the youth pastor of the First Christian Reformed Church, said the high schoolers from across the country and Canada will spend three days working at the sites, have a day of fun at Deep River Waterpark and spend Friday giving back to the community in a different way. The church raised enough money to give each of the eight groups $500 to spend however they want. The only stipulation is they have to do good deeds with the money.

With a hammer in his tool belt, Keith Van Rhee, 17, from Michigan, is more focused on the task at hand, framing the Gary house's floor, than how he'll help spend his $500.

"I haven't really thought about it yet," he said. "I'm sure God will put something on some of the group members hearts."

Mark Boroughs, a construction manager for Habitat for Humanity for Northwest Indiana, directs the workers on the tasks of the day.

"They're good," he said over the sound of hammers hitting wood. "You have to stay on them because of their attention span, but they can perform like adults. Look what we did."

Across the street diagonally sit two houses the kids in the program worked on last year. The city of Gary donated the land to Habitat for Humanity to build 20 new homes to revitalize Adams Street, just west of Broadway.

"I really enjoy it," said John Syperda, 16, of Michigan, who's on his third retreat. "I've never built a house before."