What started off as a post-COVID service project, has amassed into a weeklong work camp trying to help young people get to God.
July 6-10, middle schoolers from parishes across the diocese came together for a week of service. The service projects varied from home repairs, gardening, landscaping, and building furniture to community beautification projects, making blankets, and serving members of the community. Alongside the work, the teens were able to participate in weeklong games, team-building activities, and prayer. Delaney Burns, a St. Mark School student and parishioner in Vienna, said, “This experience changed the way I view my community by showing me the ways in which people in our town need assistance, and how I can provide support for them.”
Benjamin Emrich, director of youth ministry at St. Mark, was eager to encourage the teens to continue service work as they enter high school and beyond. Emrich said that the goal for the week was to inspire the teens to “learn how to love God well through service and community.” He also emphasized that all the events throughout the week were done intentionally with Mass every day and opportunities for community bonding among different parish members — whether they be from St. Mark, St. Luke, Christ the Redeemer, or other surrounding parishes. “The relations built between parishes, as well as the connection between the teens and adults, was very tangible,” Emrich said.
A new addition to the camp this year was “high school helpers.” These were volunteers who made up the homebase team at St. Mark’s, helping encourage the younger workers in their service and faith formation. Emulating the diocesan WorkCamp that occurs every summer, the theme was “Call Upon the Lord.” Emrich said that throughout the week, campers engaged in understanding how God is real, how he loves us, how we must recognize our broken nature that can also be redeemed, how we can participate in the community and the sacraments, and finally how we are called to go forth and spread the message of Christ.
