After a fire destroys an Abilene home, a local youth group teamed up to help restore the ruins.

The youth group at St. Paul United Methodist Church spent their summer helping to rebuild broken and torn communities.

They were in Joplin Missouri earlier this summer but a fire in April that destroyed a local home has brought them back.

Meredith Kleiner's father and brother lived in the home and nearly died in the flames, so the help offered by St. Paul's made all the difference in the world.

"My friends helping, my kids, my brother recovering. These have all made a big difference," Kleiner said.

The clean up crew was able to salvage some memorable articles from the fire including two photo albums.

"Those are some of the last memories that I have from my mother who died a few years ago. And it had lots of pictures of my brother when he was in Cook's," Kleiner said.

Kleiner's brother, Matthew O'Conner spent months in the hospital after the fire.

The youth group from St. Paul's spend Thursday and Friday cleaning up.

Trent Watts spent the day in the heat and says that despite the hot temperature, it was all worth it.

"I just like doing this, I enjoy helping other people." Watts said.

With such a small amount of treasured items lost, the family said they're thankful for even the small things that they were able to take home from the ruins.