St. Joseph’s Parish ~ Hosted the Coolest Adventure of the Summer
St. Joseph’s gym in Garden City was transformed into a climbing expedition (reaching the summit requires teamwork) of Mt. Everest, complete with a base camp in front of snowy mountain peaks. For four days starting June 29 with the finale on July 2, over 300 campers from nursery school through fifth grade, were joined with over 120 teen leaders and assistant leaders from grades 6 through grade 12 to learn to conquer challenges with God’s mighty power. Vacation Bible School is filled with Bible-learning experiences kids see, hear, touch and even taste with cool songs, arts and crafts, tasty treats, and team-building games.
At Everest VBS, no activity stands alone. Our adult station leaders see all the kids each day. The stations are Base Camp Sing & Play, Imagination Station, KidVid Cinema, Glacier Games and Bible Adventures. Kids spend time at each station, moving around in a camp-like environment. Our youngest members of our Parish, nursery and pre-K, experience VBS in their own area, Preschool Peak.
What is cool about St. Joseph’s VBS program, is that it truly is a PARISH wide program; adult and teen volunteers come together to ensure the safety and fun of all our campers. We also rely on our parents, who graciously and generously help provide food items for our tasty treats. Our teens, many who were campers once themselves, are dedicated to making sure their campers have fun and are safe at all times. They do this by attending one training session in order to be able to participate.
It isn’t just fun and games at VBS. Through our “Caring Coins” program, our campers, teens and families participate in our community service project. Our campers and teens are divided into four color groups; green, red, yellow and blue. Each color group brings in as many coins as they can and places them in the container jars marked with their color. All collected coins are then donated to a predetermined charity. This year, we chose to send the donated coins to Catholic Relief Services emergency earthquake fund for victims of the earthquake in Nepal which occurred on April 25, 2015. The total amount collected from our generous families amounted to $1,482.00!! Thank you so much!
On behalf of our Religious Education Director, Susan Mirabella, we want to thank our wonderful teen volunteers as well as all adults who graciously accepted the call for help to bring this program to the youth of our Parish. Without our 120 teens and 30 plus adult volunteers, this program would not be offered.
Plans are underway for our VBS 2016 “CAVE QUEST” Following Jesus..The Light of the World”. New adult volunteers are needed so that we may continue to offer this valuable program for the families of St. Joseph’s Parish. Please email us at stjoegcvbs@gmail.com if you are interested in volunteering.
Co-Directors Connie McManus and Tina Cento, together with our Nursery/PreK Director, Catherine Amato, would like to thank the Parish families for their past support. We welcome first time volunteers!