Escape Student Ministries has a student band that performs, and students can also receive music lessons. (Photo by Matty Lamp)

PARKERSBURG — The Escape is a non-denominational organization whose mission is to serve God by providing community service and enriching social and career experiences for middle and high schoolers in the Parkersburg area.

The Escape, which encompasses Escape Student Ministries and Escape Community Ministries, was originally a part of Liberty Street Church of God.

In November 2024, The Escape decided to become its own organization, and purchased its current building from Liberty Street in May with the help of a donor to continue operations in its own space.

Eric Tucker, Director of Operations for Escape Community Ministries and Director of Escape Student Ministries, has been working with The Escape since 2015. Tucker said the goal of The Escape’s decision to become a separate non-denominational organization was to help better serve the community and expand partnership with the local churches in the area.

“We see a lot of needs in the community, and there are a lot of great non-profits and church ministries in the community doing really good work to meet those needs,” said Tucker. “It just made a little more sense to do that as an independent non-profit so that denominational barriers didn’t exist and we had more freedom to serve the community in creative ways.”

Escape Student Ministries hopes to renovate this space into a hair salon to help the students and others in the community. (Photo by Matty Lamp)

The Escape is open every Sunday for students to receive free meals through John Six Food Ministry and Old Man Rivers Missions. Students can take part in recreational activities during free time such as ping-pong, air hockey, art lessons, and video games. There is also a student-led band that performs at The Escape, and students can receive music lessons on Fridays at The Escape’s music recording booth.

Escape Student Ministries also offers career training and enrichment activities every Friday to help prepare students for the workforce and allow them to explore different occupations. The Escape routinely has visitors from different job sectors come in to set up experiences for the students to take part in. Some past events held by The Escape include a simulated restaurant, a basic plumbing skills workshop, and an afternoon of virtual job exploration via Oculus headsets with West Virginia Job Development.

The Escape collaborates with several churches in the area to host community events throughout the year. This year in January, The Escape and 17 other youth groups put on the annual Mid-Ohio Valley Snow Camp retreat. In April, The Escape joined 24 local youth ministries to pack 10,000 meals for Rise Against Hunger and assemble 20 Little Tikes playhouses for Habitat for Humanity as part of the annual Good Friday event at South Parkersburg Baptist Church.

“We want to offer spiritual development opportunities, and part of being healthy spiritually is not just serving God well, but serving the community well,” said Tucker. “We don’t just want to produce people who claim to know and love God if they’re failing to know and love the people in the community around them.”

In partnership with Praying Pelican Missions, students from around the United States can stay at The Escape for a week to serve local non-profits and churches with students from The Escape for no charge.

There are several spaces in the Escape Student Ministries building that are also booked out for other partnered organizations to use for events and activities. (Photo by Matty Lamp)

“We send our Parkersburg students out with those teams to serve shoulder-to-shoulder,” said Tucker. “We make them aware of dozens of local non-profits that they can connect with and serve with going into the future.”

The Escape is being supported by multiple churches in the area both financially and with volunteers, including New Life Baptist Church, Evergreen Bible Church, Immanuel Baptist Church, First Baptist Church of Williamstown, New Hope Baptist Church, and Tri-City Baptist Church. Since The Escape purchased the building, it can now begin work renovating the upstairs for both their members and other ministries and non-profits to use.

Tucker estimates that the renovations to the upstairs of the building will cost at least $150,000. He said The Escape plans to only take on the renovation work as money comes in to remain debt-free, and they would need help with work such as connecting HVAC, repairing the plaster and drywall, and installing windows, flooring, and light fixtures.

“If we could get some people with some trade skills up here, it would be a gamechanger,” he said.

The Escape is currently waiting to receive its 501-c non-profit status that they applied for with the help of an attorney four months ago. Once the organization receives that status, it hopes to begin writing grants and continue to find more ways to serve the Mid-Ohio Valley.

Escape Student Ministries regularly hosts art lessons for the students, and the finished pieces are displayed along the wall of the play area. (Photo by Matty Lamp)

“We ultimately exist to better the community and build the kingdom of God. We can’t do one without the other,” said Tucker.

For more information about visiting or donating to The Escape, visit the organization’s Facebook page or contact Eric Tucker at eric@escapecommunityministries.org.

Matty Lamp can be reached at mlamp@newsandsentinel.com.

For one of the career enrichment activities, students at Escape Student Ministries learned how to operate a simulated restaurant. (Photo by Matty Lamp)