Steve Merz and his daughter, Laura Merz, of Dexter, who is leaving today for three months  to work with youth in Liberia

Courtesy photo | For AnnArbor.com

Laura Merz of Dexter will spend 20 hours in a plane today en route to Liberia, Africa, and a week in Conia, a remote village, with no running water or electricity.

The 21-year-old Dexter High School graduate is headed to the African nation on behalf of LACES (Life and Change Experienced Thru Sports), a non-profit group that works with children around the world. It was founded by Seren Frost, a graduate of Ball State University, where Merz is a student in the school of journalism studying advertising and marketing.

“I’ve never done something like this before. My friends haven’t done anything like this,” Merz said. “One day, I’ll be in my comfy bed and then I’ll be sleeping with a mosquito net.”

As she heads from snow to 90-plus degrees and from college life to an area of war-torn poverty, Merz expects the experience to “flip my world upside down.”

"I'm deathly afraid of snakes and anything the locals are afriad of, I'll certainly be afraid of," she says.

Merz will spend the first week of her Liberian experience on a campus in a neighborhood where there are American health care workers and missionaries, as well as cold running water and electricity.

“It’s like The Ritz over there,” she said.

Then it’s on to the remote village, which has no amenities.

Liberia is the third poorest nation in the world, Merz says, and borders the North Atlantic Ocean. It’s an English-speaking nation that is slowly starting to rebuild following 14 years of civil war.

Her roommate has begged her not to go, and her parents are concerned about her safety. Also, some of her friends have tried to change her mind. But as her trip has grown closer, Merz said she found more and more support from her family and friends.

“At Christmas this year, I got things like bug spray and sunscreen and travel towels,” she said.

Laura Merz and her dog, Easton.

Courtesy photo

Merz said this is a journey she’s been thinking about taking since she was a senior at Dexter High School when she watched a video titled “Invisible Children” about the use of child soldiers in Uganda, Africa.

“I went home from school that day and told my mom, I want to go to Africa,’’ she said.

Fast forward to November 2010.

Merz learned about the organization LACES at Ball State, and decided that before she got her degree and headed off into the business world, she needed to follow her dream.

She started doing research about the group and decided it might offer her the opportunity to make that dream a reality.

“I emailed them and got an answer back the next day,” she said.

The organization teaches Christian morals and values through sports, according to its mission statement.

On her blog about the trip, Merz wrote: “LACES mentors these children through their favorite pastime, soccer, teaching teamwork to combat the various effects of their unsupportive upbringings and environments. The organization fosters the development of young Christian leaders on and off the playing field, and I am so excited to contribute.”

The first obstacle in her plan was to get her parents on board. Then there was the cost -— $4,000 for airfare, vaccines, travel documents and expenses. But most important to her parents that she finish her degree. She promised to come back in the fall and do that.

As part of her six-month commitment to the organization, she’s spent the last three months at Ball State working on a marketing plan for the organization. She'll finalize the plan during her three months in Liberia.

Merz said, despite their fears, her parents will take her to the airport. “My mom’s really nervous about my safety, but they are supporting me,” she said. In fact, her parents were expected to take her to the airport.

“We were worried about her health and safety,” Gail Merz said, admitting she and her husband, Steve Merz, tried to talk their daughter out of the trip in the beginning.

But Gail Merz said their daughter is 21 years old, an adult, and they are supporting her “enthusiasm and desire to go.”

“We gave them wings, we need to let them fly.” she said of her three children.

“My brothers (one younger and one older) think it’s really neat,” Laura Merz said. “But they aren’t in a position to go.”

Laura Merz will have access to the Internet so she’ll be able to communicate with her family while she's gone, and she's scheduled to return to American soil on her 22nd birthday.

Lisa Allmendinger is a reporter with AnnArbor.com. She can be reached at lisaallmendinger@annarbor.com. For more Dexter stories, visit our Dexter page.