The smell of baking cookies intertwines with talk of Haiti as members of Claire Nicholls's peer ministers, mostly in their late teens and early 20s, plan their June mission trip to that earthquake-torn country. The trip will be supported by a blizzard of bake sales (this one was held at Bishop's Orchards), car washes, and other fundraising activities over the coming weeks.

Although many students have traveled to help in Haiti with Claire since 2005, this winter's disastrous earthquake leveled the Norwich Mission House at which her group usually stays.

"After the earthquake, this group said, 'Why can't we go now?'" recalls Claire, St. George Catholic Church's grades 7 ro 12 youth education leader. "I told them we'll get there when we're needed."

Months of frustration followed as everyone waited to learn if they'd be allowed to travel to help those in need, including some they'd come to know as friends.

"One staff member we know had a leg amputated because she was trapped in the house when it fell," says Claire.

Three weeks ago, Claire's group was finally given a green light to stay at a temporary mission house shelter in Haiti.

"We were the only youth group picked," says Claire, a Guilford resident. "If you could have seen them in action last year, you'd see why they want them back."

On June 18, Claire and 10 of her Peer Ministry members will arrive to assist at a MASH-style hospital unit and at Mother Theresa Hospital, which also serves as a Haitian orphanage.

"On your best day, you're shell-shocked," says Claire of the stunning poverty and despair she's witnessed in pre-earthquake Haiti. "But it is a life-changing experience for a lot of the kids and it's been for me, too. I was in my 50s when I went there my first time and I will never be the same. One of the kids who went with me on the first trip I ever did, Johnna Sullivan, is now a house mother at an orphanage up in the hills."

Kellie Duggan (who passed away in 2009) was also in that first group and "she chose to go into social work because of it," says Claire.

"When the kids get back, they'll speak at church or talk to the younger kids so the people who've supported them get to learn about what it was like to be there. I've had kids who've been moved to write songs and poems." (To read some of those pieces, see related links to the right.)

Claire's own journey toward directing the church's youth programs began in 1993. A parishioner since 1986, the mother of three (now all Peer Minister graduates), was always interested in social justice work. She spent many years as welfare coordinator for Yale-New Haven Hospital and was volunteering with the church's Food Salvage program when "I was asked if I wanted to work with the kids, which is something I've always wanted," says Claire.

In 2000, Claire heard a visiting missionary speak at the church and decided her older students should begin working toward mission trips to Haiti. As well as running grades 11 to 12 Peer Ministers, Claire also coordinates grades 7 to 8 CCD and grades 9 to 10 Confirmation classes for St. George's.

Claire's goal is to help all of her kids grasp the importance of caring for others as the concepts of social justice and morality come to bear.

"They begin to understand what our responsibility is as humans. We have to take care of each other," she says.

She credits her graduates, now in college, with dedicating countless volunteer hours to help shape future Peer Minister graduates. Many say they keep coming back because of Claire, but Claire calls it a happy evolution.

"The programs have evolved. My programs run because of these young people. The peer ministers who run the retreats are guided by the college-aged kids. I have kids who've graduated from college that have come back to teach," she says. "I just stand back and I watch."