St. Rita’s
Young People Who Care
High School
Summer Service Project
Sunday July 10 - Friday July 15
2019 Participants
After two years of restrictions, its time to stretch our service muscles.
This Summer Service Project is designed for High School Students to do just that. It is a week of living our faith and growing closer to God.
This fantastic week of service takes place at Young People Who Care (YPWC) in Frenchville, PA. YPWC is a rural Catholic mission set in the northern mountains of Appalachia. Founded in 1976, YPWC has been hosting weeks of the Summer Service Program for over 40 years. Life at YPWC has four characteristics that make it special: Community, Simplicity, Prayer, and Service. All of the participants enter enthusiastically into this lifestyle for the week
This page gives a nice overview of this amazing Project and the downloads give the details.
Participants must be
at least 16 years old and entering their junior year of high school, up through graduating seniors.
or at least 14 years of age and entering their freshman year of high school with a parent who also participates in the week.
Everyone wanting to participate must attend one of the information sessions with a parent
Information Sessions:
Sunday, March 20 at 11:30 am (following the 10:30 am Mass) or
Sunday, March 27 at 7:45 pm, following the Confirmation Preparation and Youth Group Session
Thank you for your interest. If for some reasons you cannot participate in one of the Information Sessions, please let me know, Fr. Tim, 585-507-1433.
Community
Community is what we become when we are more than a group of individuals. Community is who we are when we live, work, and pray as Christians and disciples of Jesus. In order to form community we work hard together side by side. We pray and play together. We take turns cooking meals for one another and doing chores. We pay attention to what needs to be done and jump up to be the first one to help. We enter into the life of YPWC together and become a community. We are united in our love of Jesus and our desire to serve God and God’s people.
Prayer
Prayer provides the atmosphere for our time at YPWC. It is in prayer that we recognize the God for whom we are doing this, the One who has called us to serve. Our prayer helps us to identify the face of Jesus in those around us. It is in prayer that ponder what led us to make the choice to be here. In prayer we lift up into God’s hands those we are participating with and those whose lives we are touching. In prayer we grow in our understanding of our growing into the image of God.
We pray every morning, before and after meals, and every night. Participants each have the opportunity to work with a group of students and adults to plan one of our night prayers. On our last night together our night prayer is a Mass. Weather permitting, the Mass will be in the woods at the top of the hill with its beautiful scenic view. Mass is also offered the other days for those who would like to take part.
Singing for residents
Downloads: Information and Forms
Frequently Asked Questions: This booklet presents information about the week and what to expect.
Volunteer Information Packet: This Packet contains specific information that must be read by every participants and their parents (here for PDF version of Volunteer Information Packet).
Application for students and adults: Every person who would like to participate must complete this application.
Forms still to come
Packing List
Health Forms for Students and Adults
Driver Information Forms
A wheelchair ramp in the making
Mass at night up on the hill
Simplicity
A life of simplicity involves living in ways that are best for the community and for those we serve. In order to live in solidarity with the poor, for example, we do without junk food while at YPWC. In order to focus our attention on those in our community, we do not use cell phones, music players, or other electronics for the week. This allows us to enter into good conversations and be present to the other participants with whom we are serving. We recycle all we can and compost all we can.
We also conserve water as best we can. This means that each participant will have one shower during the week. This may seem like bad news until you hear that the other days you get to take part in the local river.
Simplicity is not always easy. It is, however, essential that all participants enthusiastically enter into the life of simplicity in order for the life of the community to flow smoothly.
Service
Christian Service is meeting the needs of others. These needs may not always be obvious. It may be that we will serve a person who owns a nice home and just needs the yard cleaned up. Another family might have a home in disrepair and we do a little renovation. Sometimes the person into whose home we are invited is simply in need of someone to spend some time with them. There are many kinds of poverty and we hope we can meet as many needs as possible while there.
The people whose homes we visit are always the focus of our efforts. Even if we have hard work to accomplish, we always take time to sit and visit. They do not see you simply as free labor. They see you as young person who has taken the time to come and be a part of their life for a day. Most often, that is what they will always remember.
