ROY -- Sixteen-year-old Haley Horton of Roy said she's realized that she doesn't have to be an adult to change the world for the better.
"It's cool to know that even though you are a teenager, you can make a difference in the world," she said after fasting for 30 hours last weekend while serving the homeless and the less fortunate.
"It's not the money you give," she said. "It's the time you spend and the generous people you are able to get donations from."
It was the fourth time Horton had fasted for 30 hours as a way to raise money for a good cause with those in her youth group at Wasatch Evangelical Free Church in Roy. While she said she's getting better at going without food, she said finding pledges for her efforts in the community was harder this year.
Horton doesn't remember struggling to get the $370 she raised last year. This year, she said she was lucky to bring in $180.
Zack Sunderland of Sunset, also 16 and completing his fourth effort to fast, said he's learned to relax and get past his compulsion to eat.
"You can have a good time," he said of the activity. "You are around friends." He said it helps him realize that people don't really need to eat three meals a day.
These young people were part of a group of 35 teens from their church who were participating with youth from all over the country in World Vision's annual 30-hour famine.
World Vision is a Christian relief and development organization dedicated to helping children and their communities worldwide reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty, according to information released by the organization.
It was the 11th year the youth at Wasatch Evangelical Free Church have participated in the event.
More than 20 youth groups along the Wasatch Front participated this year to raise money to fight world hunger and provide for victims of Haiti's earthquake for both short- and long-term needs.
"I enjoy it," said Brent Hinsley, who has fasted with the youth for each of the 11 years he's been youth pastor at the church. "The kids look forward to it every year."
Hinsley said he likes raising money through fasting because it teaches a valuable lesson.
"We always do service projects," he said. "We like the kids to feel hungry while they are serving homeless people dinner."
Hinsley said serving while hungry gives the youth a taste of what the less fortunate go through.
"It helps them relate to what people all over the world deal with every day," Hinsley said. "A lot of people in the world don't know when their next meal is going to be."
The youth have set a goal of raising $8,000 through pledges for the hours they fasted. So far, they have collected $6,600 for their efforts.
Throughout the Wasatch Front, groups were hoping to raise $36,000. They were part of a group of 500,000 teens nationwide aiming to donate $12 million to fight world hunger this year.
Last Friday, those in the Wasatch Evangelical Free Church youth group split up into three units. The young people simultaneously served dinner at the Ogden Rescue Mission, the Salt Lake Rescue Mission and the Road Home in Salt Lake City.
Saturday, the three groups served lunch at St. Anne's Homeless Shelter, helped out at the Utah Food Bank and played with refugee children at the Dream Center in Salt Lake City before they broke their fast.
Now in its 19th year, World Vision's 30-Hour Famine raises awareness and money to fight hunger both overseas and in the United States, states a news release from the organization.
This year a portion of the proceeds will go to Haiti to help with long-term recovery needs such as food for children, mothers and HIV-positive adults, planting of fruit trees, small-scale drip irrigation and construction of eight new clinics serving 55,000 people as well as a new pharmacy.
Additional funds will go to similar projects in nine other countries with crises that make children vulnerable, it stated.
Keilah Quimby, 17, of South Ogden said she was glad to help out the many around the world who are less fortunate, but she said doing so through fasting was difficult.
"You think, I should eat now," she said. "And then you remember, 'Oh, I can't.'"
She said the most challenging time for her was right before she broke her fast when she could smell the food.
Reggie Rea, 14, of Roy said she learned a lot by studying about the people she was working to help with the fundraising.
"It's horrible what disasters can happen," she said. "I learned the different things that happen there in Haiti. A whole bunch of kids are coming here to the U.S. and need to be adopted by families. Their homes were destroyed."
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