On Saturday evenings, when most teenagers are getting ready for parties and dates, Chris Douglas, 15, volunteers to spend his time with the terminally ill.

?It?s no big deal,? Chris said with a shrug. ?It is only two hours, and the patients are always so grateful.?

Saturday night or not, the Agape House residents still have to be cared for.

Chris is one of eight Friends of Hospice student volunteers who regularly help out at Agape House, Bermuda?s only hospice dedicated to the needs of terminal patients. Friends of Hospice is a charity that serves Agape House and also does fundraising to purchase equipment and items for patients.

Students have to be 14 years old to volunteer. Their tasks at Agape House include serving meals to the patients, answering telephones, arranging flowers, and folding laundry, among other things.

Like many of the students working at Agape House, Chris originally started volunteering to satisfy school credit requirements. But when he finished obtaining his volunteer credits, he liked helping out so much, he decided to stay.

?I have been here for a year,? he said. ?I wanted to give back to the community. I thought it would be nice to help out. I was going to stop when school was over, but then I decided to stick with it.?

Volunteer co-coordinator Lena Ostroff said many of the students who come in to get volunteer credits, do eventually stay on.

?When I started working here, I was surprised to see quite a committed group of volunteers,? said Mrs. Ostroff. ?They are always here. Most are honour students involved in a lot of different projects.?

Mrs. Ostroff said the students? help was greatly appreciated. Students usually come in after school, around the time that many paid staff members are going home to their own families.

?Our patients still need care seven days a week, 365 days a year,? said Mrs. Ostroff. ?Chris Douglas comes in on Saturday nights. Some come after school and help answer the telephone. The paid people leave at 4 p.m., and a lot of the patients? families visit after 4 p.m.?

Mrs. Ostroff recently wrote a letter to thanking the students for their support during the summer months.

?Your readers often hear about young people on our Island who cause trouble. I would like them to know about the many teenagers in Bermuda who choose to spend their vacation break working on behalf of others at Agape House,? she wrote.

She went on to say, ?Those young people were here, on time in the morning, dressed and ready to go with a smile on their faces and kindness in their hearts. At a time when we hear so much about what is wrong with our youth, it is vital to remember how many adolescents make an effort to help others.?

Mrs. Ostroff said that the students bring a lot of joy to people who are at the end of their lives.

?It is always special to them to see a bright young face,? she said.

Although a hospice for terminally ill patients doesn?t immediately sound like a pleasant place for students to volunteer, Mrs. Ostroff said the Friends of Hospice volunteers got a lot of fulfilment from the work.

?You get used to people being here one week and not here the next, although it is sad,? said another volunteer, Chris Lopes, 16.

For Chris, volunteering is a family affair. His father and cousin also help out at Agape House, and recently, his younger sister, Courtney, 14, joined the fold.

?When I started, I thought it was going to be really sad, but the volunteers are always happy and cheerful,? said Courtney. ?I really didn?t know what to expect when I started. I just started on Friday. I normally do other volunteer work, but I decided that since my brother and father were here, I would volunteer as well.?

Courtney said the experience has brought her father and brother closer together.

?On the way home they would talk about their experiences,? she said. ?I didn?t really feel jealous, because I always knew I could come here and volunteer at Agape House when I was old enough.?

Courtney said on the first day, she helped with the meal service and left Agape House, ?pretty happy? that she?d done something good.

Alex Butterfield, 16, has been volunteering since January.

?At first, I didn?t know how to act around the patients,? he said. ?Sometimes you just talk to them. You just have a conversation with someone. I feel like everything counts even though it might be something like meal service.?

While one might expect that working in a hospice might inspire the students to become doctors or nurses, just the opposite seemed to be true. Many of them wanted to be accountants or insurance executives.

?I wouldn?t want to work with doctors all the time,? one student said.

The experience has, however, made them aware of their own mortality.

?From a health perspective it makes me take care of my body more,? said Alex. ?I just think about the foods I eat more.?

The students have also been inspired by the good humour of many of the patients.

?Sometimes they make me laugh,? said Alex.

Chris Lopes said that no matter how sick the patients were, they tried to make the best of things.

?I have learned not to take for granted what you have,? he said. ?There are always people who are worse off than yourself. Sometimes the patients are funny. There is one guy who always asks me the same question about my church every time he sees me. Even though they are in this situation they still laugh and make jokes.?

Alex said to work at Agape House, a student has to have a lot of patience and friendliness.

?They need to be honest, trustworthy, reliable and responsible,? he said.