Even the blazing conditions outside didn’t stop a large group of teenagers from fixing up a home on Seventh Street in Montgomery City on July 23.

For several hours, the group did sawing, painting and hammering with the temperatures in the upper 90s. The workers also made time for Gatorade and water breaks.

“It’s a mandated requirement to put down a few of those every couple of hours, making sure that no one gets heat stroke,” said Gus Heithaus, who was one of the workers.

The group was part of the Seedbearers, a St. Charles-based organization that has a large spiritual/work retreat group of teenagers and adults that is helping out the Montgomery County community. For the last seven years, it helped build homes of county residents who cannot afford repairs or cannot do it themselves.

“Our mission is to find people who are in need in the area,” Heithaus said. “We’ll offer what we can to them as far as home repairs that we can accomplish in the week. Then we go hard at work.”

Members of the Seedbearers stayed at Montgomery County Middle School from July 21-26. The organization comes there once a year, which is the last week of July. The members go to high schools all over the St. Louis area and are parishioners at Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in St. Charles.

“They organize this every summer, giving the kids an opportunity to serve the people in need,” Heithaus said.

Heithaus said Immaculate Conception Parish and the Society of St. Vincent De Paul were helpful in locating what homes in the Montgomery County community need fixing.

“Through them, we’ve got connected with certain people who are in need of home repair things,” Heithaus said. “Then, we’ll reach out to the home owners and communicate with them on whether they will be interested in that and what services we can offer for them. God willing, they accepted us to come in and do a little work on their house.”

The Seedbearers started in the early 1990s as a small organization in southeast Missouri that has grown into a large volunteer group for teenagers and adults.

Wayne Burbach is the organization’s director. There are about 60 teenagers and 30 adults in the organization.

Heithaus, who recently graduated from Saint Louis University with a Bachelor’s degree in medical science and plans to attend medical school, said he joined the Seedbearers so he would get a chance to help people in need.

“I got connected through a friend of mine who is a parishioner at Elizabeth Ann Seton in St. Charles,” Heithaus said. “He’s been doing this for 10 years. He loves it and he brought me in and I got to meet all of these kids and got involved with the community.”

Heithaus said doing volunteer work such as working on a house is very important to build strong relationships with communities like Montgomery County.

“I can wake up in the morning and say, ‘They’re a little bit better off.’ We helped them out a bit and made their lives a little better,” Heihaus said.