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The Youth Group offers spiritual, social, recreational and service opportunities for youths 12-18 years old. This year's past activities included a trip to King's Dominion, snow tubing, participating in the Right to Life march in Washington DC, going to Richmond for the Auto Show and visiting the Holocaust Museum, as well as Movie Night at St. Mary's.
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All youths attending field trips must complete and return the Field Trip Policies and Forms form.
Click here to open the form in PDF format. |
A Message for Parents
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Eighteen of St. Mary’s teens went on retreat in March! Fourteen went to Encuentro, which celebrated Catholicism in the Hispanic culture. Four teens went on other retreats that, like Encuentro, offered a weekend of faith, fun and friendship. Five more would have gone on Encuentro but their families had other events planned. Please remember that the retreats will be about the same time next year so that perhaps you can keep that weekend free of other commitments. There are no words that I can find to describe how very important these retreats are to your children. They are immersed in their Catholic faith with youths their own age, and return home inspired and firm in their faith in Jesus.
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Youth Conference 2009 (click for larger image)
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Now I must ask for your help with the Religious Education class and the Youth Group. It is extremely important that we teach our Catholic faith to the youths as a way of life, not just a Sunday obligation. They are overwhelmed with messages in modern society and at school that are contrary Jesus’ teachings
We must offer not just instruction but also social and recreational activities for them. In order to do this seriously, I must have your help. Here are some ways you can help:
Become a Virtus certified driver/chaperone
Our bishop requires all adults who work with children to attend a 3 hour training session to become Virtus certified. Virtus is an excellent program that teaches you how to recognize and prevent abuse of children by adults. The sessions are offered in both English and Spanish. I am authorized to train adults in English sessions and can assist you in finding sessions conducted in Spanish. At the end of each session I have ever conducted, parents have come forward to say “every parent should have this training!”
Currently, the same people always provide transportation for events- Otelia Arroyo, Juan Garza, Father Kelly, and 3-4 people from the English Mass. Please- I need your help so that responsibilities are shared fairly.
Teach a class, plan an event, lead a field trip, coach a soccer team
We are supposed to have separate teen Religious Education and Confirmation classes but lack teachers. Please speak to Deacon Nees, the Director of Religious Education, or me. Training is required but is quite easy.
The Youth Group had several “Movie Nights”at St. Mary’s last year and we went to Richmond for a long day trip. This year I simply ran out of time so those events did not happen. Planning and chaperoning trips requires a tremendous amount of time, especially in phone calls and letters to the families, arranging for drivers, getting parental consent forms signed, arranging pick up/drop off points and times, assigning youths to specific drivers, and being sure all the children are safe and not left behind. We can use the gym at Charlottesville Catholic School for indoor soccer but need chaperones. Can you help out?
Help with fundraising
We have been very successful at fundraising and will need to continue to do so as our parish is struggling with expenses and offers as much help as it can. The 2 food sales and flower sale really helped. Some of the same people who worked so hard at those fundraisers also absorbed the costs of the food and flowers! This was very generous, but too much of a burden on a small number of people. Please consider helping out with the expenses. I want to use Youth Group funds to pay for the cost of the food and flowers this year and appreciate your donations. If you have any ideas for raising money for our youth, please let me know.
Possible Youth Group Trip to Washington DC in May or June
Note that I said possible. If we can get some other parishes to join us, I think we can fill a 45 passenger coach bus (cost- about $1700+ for the day) and take a long day trip to Washington. Driving the youths in cars is virtually impossible near the Capitol because of security reasons and severe traffic and parking restrictions. We would leave 6:30-7:00 AM and return about 10-11 PM. Stops would include the central mall area, museums, maybe the Capitol building, and Mass at the Franciscan Monastery around 5:00PM. If we provide Mc Donald’s breakfast, pack a lunch, and have dinner at a modest cost (maybe pizza) I think that we could probably keep the costs to about $70 per youth. All youths who regularly attend mass and class would have their cost covered with Youth Group funds. We will need to do some fundraising to cover the expenses. Let me know if you can help (make lunches, chaperone, fundraising) with this idea so I can decide whether to proceed.
