New Albany Deanery’s Summer Daze program helps youths ‘live out the faith’

At left, Evan Wise, youth minister for St. Bernard Parish in Frenchtown, St. Joseph Parish in Crawford County and St. Michael Parish in Bradford, poses with youths of the parishes and an adult chaperone at right on June 17 at Harrison County Community Services (HCCS) in Corydon, where the group prepared boxes of food for delivery to the homebound as part of the New Albany Deanery’s Summer Daze program. Second from left is Deacon Rick Cooper, executive director of HCCS. (Photo by Natalie Hoefer)

By Natalie Hoefer

CLARK and HARRISON COUNTIES—It was a hot day in southern Indiana on June 17, a good day to enjoy the rewarding cool of a dive in a pool.

But kids throughout the New Albany Deanery chose something more rewarding that day—serving those in need.

Several made crafts with nursing home residents in Floyds Knobs. Others spent time in New Albany weaving plastic bags into sleeping mats for the homeless, while some helped sort clothes in Ramsey for local children in need.

At an organization in Corydon, youths filled boxes with food for delivery to the homebound. Among the volunteers was Brigid Nance of St. Michael Parish in Bradford.

Pausing her work for a moment, the soon-to-be sixth grader said helping the organization “is good for the community, so people like the homeless or people who just can’t get out can get food and be healthy.”

Brigid is one of nearly 190 youths of the 16 New Albany Deanery parishes who took part in a catechetical, service-focused program called Summer Daze. It is organized by Mount Saint Francis-based Catalyst Catholic, which in part helps the deanery’s parishes with youth ministry.

Summer Daze, now in its 25th year, is for youths entering sixth through eighth grade. Each Tuesday in June, they and their adult chaperones gather in the morning with their parish youth minister for prayer and catechesis on a theme of Catholic social teaching.

Service opportunities follow at various locations in or near the deanery. Then comes the fun as all of the kids and adults gather for a social activity.

There is a reason the program is limited to incoming sixth through eighth graders.

“These kids are at a stage in life where they want to be part of something bigger than themselves, and they want to show love to others,” explains Michelle Fessel, executive director of Catalyst Catholic. “This is the time to get them hooked on the idea of serving others.”

The Criterion met up with groups in Charlestown, Ramsey and Corydon on June 17—the third Tuesday of this year’s Summer Daze program—to see the kids put their faith into action.

‘God puts that dignity on them’

It was 8 a.m., but youths from St. Francis Xavier Parish in Henryville and St. Michael Parish in Charlestown were full of pep as they gathered at St. Michael.

Nick Smith, youth minister for both parishes, led them in prayer. Then came activities and catechesis centered on Summer Daze’s theme this year: human dignity.

Each Tuesday, the catechesis progressed in depth.

“The first week was an introduction to the concept that every human being has dignity, that God puts that dignity on them and they deserve our respect,” Evan Wise told The Criterion later that day. He is youth minister for St. Bernard Parish in Frenchtown, St. Joseph Parish in Crawford County and St. Michael Parish in Bradford.

“Last week we talked about how to foster dignity in relationships, and today it was about how we see people out in the community who are labeled with negative labels. Maybe they’re seen as different or maybe they made bad life choices, but they still deserve that dignity.”

It feels ‘really good helping others’

Later, about 40 miles away in Ramsey, a group from St. John the Baptist Parish in Starlight and St. Mary Parish in Navilleton were at work folding and hanging clothes at Ann’s Angels of Hope, which provides donated clothes, shoes, toiletries and other items to children in need based upon referrals in a three-county area.

Part of the goal of Summer Daze is to help youths understand the needs in their own communities. So, at each volunteer location, the groups learned about the people the organization or ministry assists and the type of help those they serve need.

“I explain to the kids that you never know what a person sitting next to you in church or school is going through, even if they seem fine on the outside,” said Annissa Kellum, founder of Ann’s Angels of Hope and a member of St. Michael Parish in Bradford.

“I share with them about how I grew up poor and why I give back, and how important it is to be involved in the community.”

Before the group tackled the bags and bins of donated clothes, she stressed the importance of the items’ cleanliness and quality.

“These kids we help are often bullied at school for not having the best clothes or fashion,” Kellum explained. “We want them to feel good about themselves.”

She noted that Summer Daze comes at a fortunate time for Ann’s Angels of Hope.

“We usually help about 150 kids in July get ready for going back to school,” said Kellum. “The group here today helped us gear up for that. The smiles on the kids’ faces when they pick out their clothes and shoes are priceless.”

Lydia Koeppel of St. Mary Parish in Navilleton may not see those smiles, but she saw the value of helping her less fortunate peers.

“It’s important because you want to be treated the same as other people,” said the soon-to-be sixth grader. “And they can come here to get new clothes and to feel like they fit in.”

Lydia added that it felt “really good helping others, because it gives back to the world.”

‘You really helped a whole lot of people’

The next stop was Harrison County Community Services in Corydon, less than 10 miles away, where Wise’s three-parish group was busy filling boxes of food for delivery to the homebound and readying donated clothes for distribution.

Afterward, the group gathered to learn more about the non-profit organization from its executive director Deacon Rick Cooper, who serves at St. Joseph Parish in Corydon and St. Mary Parish in Lanesville

“Our goal is to help people who are in need,” he said. “We do that through our food pantry and clothes closet,” as well as limited financial assistance with essential costs.

He noted that the clothes the group prepared were just a few of the 60,000 pieces the organization distributes each year.

The group was even more surprised by the food pantry’s annual figures: 1.4 million pounds of food serving 2,500 families for a total of about 6,000 people.

Some who seek help from the pantry “are people who don’t work or can’t work,” Deacon Cooper explained. “Some are people who do work but still can’t afford enough food.”

To illustrate the problem of hunger in Harrison County, he pointed to seven kids.

“One of you is going hungry, because one of about every seven children in the county don’t have enough food,” he said, adding that the figure for adults is one in six.

The pantry also delivers food to about 90 households a month, said Deacon Cooper, “because maybe they don’t have transportation or are handicapped.

“You built boxes that were going for those home deliveries. So, you really helped a whole lot of people today.”

There is also a section of non-perishable items for the homeless, said Deacon Cooper, noting the facility sees “probably 15 to 30 [homeless] families a month—it just varies.

“But homelessness doesn’t look the same here as it would in Indianapolis or Louisville,” he said. The homeless in rural areas are more often “staying in a barn or with a friend, or sleeping under a bridge. But those people are here.”

The number of homeless families surprised Abram Milliner, an incoming seventh grader.

“I knew there were some, but not that many,” said the member of St. Michael Parish in Bradford.

He said the service experience taught him that without Harrison County Community Services and its volunteers, “people that need food and clothes wouldn’t be able to get them.”

‘We can be the hands and feet of Jesus’

In total, 25 groups of youths and chaperones served for about two hours at nine different organizations and ministries on June 17.

There was time to eat the sack lunch each brought. Then all of the kids and adults converged on a Corydon movie theater to enjoy a private showing of a Lilo and Stitch film, popcorn, a drink—and air conditioning.

Before grabbing a seat, several youths shared about their Summer Daze experience.

Of the different service opportunities, Kaiden Willis had a favorite: weaving sleeping mats out of plastic bags for the homeless. The activity was led by the Weaving God’s Blessing ministry at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in New Albany.

“I see homeless people when we’re driving, and see that they need help, and it really helped to know that I was making a difference,” said Kaiden, who will soon be in eighth grade at his parish’s school, St. John Paul II in Sellersburg.

Naimah Vizhnay of St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Clarksville enjoyed the program so much as a middle-schooler that the incoming sophomore signed up as a chaperone the last two years.

“When we learn some people don’t have a mattress or there are elderly people who don’t have anyone to talk to, it helps us realize how fortunate we are and grateful we should be,” she said. “We help all kinds of people of all ages and circumstances so we can be the hands and feet of Jesus.”

Soon-to-be eighth grader Zadie Orr of Our Lady of Perpetual Help agreed.

Summer Daze is “a good way to live out the faith,” she said. “And it’s a good way to connect with people in different parishes.”

‘So that we can grow closer’ to God

That connection is one of the program’s three goals, said Fessel.

“We hope to build community among the Catholic youths within the parish and among other parishes,” she said.

The program also strives “to help them begin to grasp the concept of Catholic social teaching, then to connect them with needs right here in their own community,” Fessel added.

Needs like sleeping mats for the homeless. Chaperone Porsha Heck and two of her sons participated in the mat-making service opportunity.

The boys “couldn’t believe that [homeless persons] sleep on those,” said Heck, a member of St. Mary-of-the-Knobs Parish in Floyd County with her husband Ben and their three children. “But I’m like, ‘Well, you’ve got to realize how blessed you are. Not everyone has a bed.’ The service opportunities just make you think.”

Raising such awareness is the program’s best benefit, said Wise.

“A big thing that I see the kids getting is the exposure to the stuff we talk about—the homelessness, the food insecurity, all these kinds of things,” he said.

“It isn’t just stuff that’s overseas or across the country or in the big cities. It is right here. It’s in your backyard. It’s 10 minutes down the road. I think that’s extremely important for kids to realize.”

And it’s important for the young Catholics to realize service “doesn’t have to be just a week in the summer,” Wise added. “It can be every weekend in your hometown.

“So that’s the big thing, just kind of showing them that the need exists and there are everyday things that you can do to help that need.”

Heck—who first volunteered as a chaperone for Summer Daze in high school with her now-husband—said learning that lesson is why she enrolled their two age-eligible boys in the program.

“I wanted them to realize that you need to help other people,” she said. “It’s not just about you and yourself. It’s about trying to serve other people.”

And why is serving others important?

Earlier that day, as young Brigid paused from preparing food boxes for the homebound, she offered this insightful answer: “God wants us to help people so that we can grow closer to him.” †