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86 ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 25, ISSUE 2 f Wilson, is a well-known and respected member of the community, being the executive pastor at the New Prospect Baptist Church in Cincinnati. April felt like she had not only let down her parents, but her entire church family, as well. "Their disappointment hurt more than anything," she said of her parents. "… They knew I had a lot of consequences from coach, the university and court, so they didn't want to put any extra on me, but their disappointment was enough." But there was tangible punishment, too. The Wil- sons vetoed a vacation trip to California that April was supposed to make with friends, and they threat- ened to bring her car back home with them. "We were very saddened and disappointed," said James Wilson, who also is the Vice President of Housing for Talbert House, an or- ganization that helps in the recov- ery of the downtrodden in Cincin- nati. "But to be honest with you, I was more interested in seeing how she would respond to me and mom and the coaches getting on her. "We're college graduates and we've made bone- headed mistakes too, but I was more interested in the growth and maturity that comes from those, more than the act in and of itself. "I wasn't too worried, because I've found that some- times the more mature folks that I've experienced are the ones who have made some blunders. It's almost as if you have to have a blunder — in some cases, not every case, of course — you have to fall and get embarrassed in order to respond and understand how fragile some gifts are. I think she's re- alized that and think she's responding quite well, very proud of her." The Wilsons allowed April to keep a second trip, one that they felt could hold a lot more meaning. It wasn't a vacation. In May, she joined a group of others from Purdue on a mission trip to Haiti, where they worked on the Ephraim Orphan Project, whose objec- tive is to provide housing and educa- tion for needy Haitian children. It was completely unlike a mission trip Wilson had been on previously; the summer before, she and other Boilermakers went to South Africa, where they worked at an orphanage but also lived there, ate well and gen- erally were "treated amazingly." Haiti is a third-world country. "Some days we didn't have water, and electricity was on and off through- out the day," she said. "We would work all day in 100-degree weather and not ... all the services ... all the food ... all the comfort ... all the fun YourWindow_GoldandBlack_August10_electronic.indd 1 8/20/2010 2:26:24 PM "She's really done a 180 change in her attitude and her maturity, and understanding you are on this level and there are responsibilities with it." Whitney Bays on April Wilson