Most teenagers think a winter trip involves the sand and the sun, but two Ottawa teens are turning a two-week trip to Greece into a humanitarian aid expedition. They are travelling with one of the girls' mothers, a nurse from CHEO, to help migrants arriving in Lesvos. That's the most northern island in Greece, near Turkey where thousands of Syrians are landing, as they flee the civic war in their country.

17-year-old Sydney Pothakos and her 17-year-old friend Tara Bertrim give one final check through their luggage before heading to the Ottawa International Airport.

“I have eighty emergency blankets that my mom bought, I have a first aid kit and a head lamp,” says Sydney.

It is not your typical packing list.  Then again, this isn't your typical trip.  Pothakos and Bertrim leave today for Lesvos to help with a humanitarian crisis.

“I can't even fathom what I’m going to see,” says Tara, “I can't even prepare myself for it.”

Understandly so.  The scene in Lesvos would overwhelm anyone.  Hundreds of Syrians arrive by boat on the tiny Greek island every day, hungry, scared and now homeless.

“These people have nothing,” says Tara, as she chokes up, “It makes me upset talking about it. I can't even imagine, but definitely these people need help, they definitely need help.”

The girls are travelling with Sydney's mother Roxane, a nurse at CHEO and a Greek herself.  She's been to Greece several times and to Lesvos once before and will provide direct medical care once again.

“What I will be doing is standing on the beach and receiving them and providing clothing, medical care, food as soon as they reach the beaches as refugees,” Roxane Pothakos explains.

Tara and Sydney will help provide food and clothing to the refugees, through an organization called the Dirty Girls of Lesvos.

“When they come over, they will give us their clothes, we will recycle them, clean them and give them clean clothes,” says Sydney, “we will also help set up camps for them and making food and working in soup kitchen as well.”

Canadians have responded en masse to this crisis but volunteering on the front lines is not something aid organizations encourage. Kevin Dunbar is the Humanitarian Director with Care Canada.

“I would encourage people to provide donations,” he says, “and those who really want to help, there are opportunities here in Ottawa and Canada to help integrate and welcome people to our country.”

The girls are worried about what they will see and how they will cope.

“Yeah, very, very worried,” says Sydney.

But they know this experience will change their lives, almost as much as the Syrians they are welcoming ashore.

“It will be worth it,” says Sydney, “I know this trip will change my entire outlook on my life.”

The girls will be in Lesvos for nearly two weeks.  Roxane will volunteer for a month.