For a lot of high school students, summertime brings opportunities to sleep late, hang out with friends or just take time for themselves. However, Annalise Forgash saw the time as an opportunity to serve others.
Forgash, a senior at Paul VI High School in Haddonfield, spent a week of her summer volunteering with the nonprofit Let’s Share the Sun Foundation in Puerto Rico, where she helped install solar panels. She was able to participate in the project through a connection with her father, John Forgash, a solar power engineer.
One of the reasons Forgash said she wanted to participate was to feel closer to her heritage.
“I’m half Colombian. So, I’m of Latin American descent, and being in Puerto Rico makes me feel a little bit closer to that side of my heritage,” she said. “I also felt like it would be a really cool experience because I’ve never done a mission trip before.”
Along with a professional crew, Forgash was one of the interns working on the project. “I was the only one that was in high school,” she said. “I was the youngest there.”
A crew would deliver all the solar panels and equipment, and then Forgash and her group did the installation. “We had to drill holes into the concrete roof, place down all the brackets, and then lift the solar panels onto the roof and install it,” she said. “It was kind of hard, but the crew was really helpful. We would work for five hours, six hours, and then we had part of the time to talk to [the homeowner] Maria about her story.”
Maria, a single mother, lives in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico, a remote village in the mountains. Her home received extensive storm damage, forcing her and her son, who has Down syndrome, to live in the basement of the house without electricity or running water for more than eight months.
“They didn’t have electricity for TV. They didn’t have air conditioning. They had no lights or energy,” Forgash said. “They had to collect water. It was like going back in time.”
She remembered Maria’s reaction once the work was completed. “You could tell she was over the moon. She kept saying how her son could watch television now and not have food go bad, or worry about it getting too hot at nighttime.”
A parishioner of Saint Joan of Arc in Marlton, she said that her summer experience ties into the Catholic values she has learned in school.
“I think it definitely relates to giving back into the community and doing things for others,” she said, as well as “having an open mind, not being judgmental of others, being able to open up, and seeing issues and actually working on them.”
She said that the experience also helped her appreciate the things she takes for granted. “I have electricity and water all day, every day. I don’t have to worry about it; it’s like peace of mind. A lot of people have peace of mind knowing that they have all these things, when there are so many people in the world that just don’t have that luxury.”

© All Rights Reserved | September 22, 2026 | Catholic Star Herald of the Diocese of Camden
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© All Rights Reserved | September 22, 2026 | Catholic Star Herald of the Diocese of Camden

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