Come rain and come sunshine teens with Group Work Camp got the job done in Lincoln County this week.

Some 352 teens from all parts of the country rehabilitated 49 homes in Ruidoso, Ruidoso Downs, Capitan, Glencoe and San Patricio as part of a nonprofit help program sponsored by the Southeastern New Mexico Community Action Corpora-tion.

Repair work, performed free of charge for qualifying residents, included the installation of wheel chair ramps, doors and windows, house painting, dry wall repair, weatherization and mobile home underpinning, as well as other carpentry jobs.

Chris Rehkopf, 16, of Sugarland, Texas, said this was his first time to visit the Ruidoso area but said it was his third Work Camp mission.

"I like to sign up every year under my church youth group because it feels good to help people," Rehkopf said. "People really appreciate the work we do for them. It's nice to see their faces when the job is done."

Ruidoso Downs residents Johnny and Nita Burke said they were thrilled with the labor and attitude of the Work Camp kids.

"They've been very polite and have done work that we needed to have done for years but couldn't do," Nita Burke, 82, said. "It's been 20 years since our house had any real work done to it."

Elisa Davis, executive director of NMCAP, said that despite this week's rain the teens completed work slated at all homes.

"This was a tremendous community effort that made a difference in people's lives," she said. "We helped one woman who was not able to go out onto her porch because it was unsteady and she had had a brain tumor. In another case a man who just had back surgery was able to come home this week because the Work Camp kids got a wheel chair ramp built for him."

Davis said that whenever rain halted exterior work on homes "the kids would go inside and make themselves useful - clean or do whatever around the house was needed. They also used the down time for devotion," she said.

Davis said local sponsorships and program fees paid by youth participants enrolled in the mission helped with the purchase of carpentry supplies and materials.

Fundraising for the project was kicked off late last year with a $9,000 grant from the R.D. and Joan Dale Hubbard Foundation. Other organizations who pitched in were: State National Bank, Valor Telecom, Ruidoso Downs Auxiliary, First Federal Bank, City Bank, Century 21 Aspen Real Estate, Ruidoso Rotary Club, J Bar J Country Church, Wells Fargo, Ruidoso Federa-ted Women's Club, Linda Flack, Ronnie Hemphill P.C., Zia Natural Gas Co. and Wal-Mart Supercenter.

Foxworth-Galbraith offered lumber at discount prices while First Presbyterian Church helped with promotion and organization.