NORTH HALEDON For more than a decade, hundreds of teens from around the country would come to the Paterson Diocese volunteering for a week during the summer at its Catholic Charities agencies through Catholic Heart Workcamp (CHWC). Bringing their joy and eagerness to serve and living as followers of Jesus would, these teens were needed to help diocesan agencies, which already run on limited resources.
With the closure of Our Lady Queen of Peace High School in North Arlington, CHWC, which is a weeklong service camp that provides youth and young adults with volunteer opportunities at 54 locations around the country, was left without a facility to accommodate the campers to enjoy evening spiritual programs and rest after a day of service.
Concerned that CHWC would no longer be able to host a camp in northern New Jersey, local youth ministers and the local CHWC team worked to look for a new facility. CHWC has found that at Mary Help of Christians Academy here. The camp will be held next summer during the week of July 22-28.
Salesian Sister Marisa DeRose, principal of the all-girls high school, said, “We are very excited to have CHWC. It’s an opportunity to share in the ministry of the Church, which serves the poor, and it will be a great witness to see young people from around the country spending the week during the summer to serve others.”
The facilities at Mary Help will host 275 campers, and are already filled to capacity according to CHWC. These teens from around the country will be volunteering at different locations in the northern New Jersey area. This includes the agencies of the diocesan Catholic Charities network — Catholic Family and Community Services (CFCS), Department for Persons with Disabilities (DPD) and Straight and Narrow. The volunteers will also be working with Catholic schools and other agencies in Paterson, Newark and Elizabeth.
Through the years, campers have helped revitalize the facilities of different agencies by painting walls and lines for the parking lots, moving and relocating equipment, gardening and pulling weeds, stocking shelves in food pantries and folding clothes in the clothing boutique. They also got to know many of the clients by tutoring children in Catholic Charities’ daycare centers and engaging in activities with clients at DPD.
Sister of Charity Maureen Sullivan, director of ministry services and volunteers at CFCS, said, “They are a wonderful witness of Christian love in action. When groups like CHWC help us, the generosity extends far beyond CFCS and our clients. As I explained to past volunteers, some of these tasks may seem menial. However, making our site welcoming for clients shows the clients that we value them and want to make things better for them. Working one on one with our children and developmentally disabled gives them new friends who they know care about them.”
Bringing the youth group from Annunciation Parish in Wayne for the past four years to CHWC experiences, Elise Rossbach, youth minister, was concerned at the news CHWC possibly wouldn’t have a camp in the northern New Jersey area. She assisted in the process of finding a new facility.
According to Connolly, the youth at Annunciation Parish will play an active role in the CHWC camp at Mary Help of Christians Academy as a host youth group. “They will assist the out-of-state campers when they come to Mary Help that Saturday. The youth group will unload the trucks, get the classrooms set-up and assist with evening activities. It’s a big help for the CHWC team to have the extra pair of hands.”
At Mary Help, each evening CHWC offers a spiritual program of prayer, music and fellowship for the teens. The facility will host CHWC’s main activities in the auditorium and the gym. Campers will be sleeping in classrooms with males and females on separate floors. There are also separate locker room areas with private shower stalls. The school also features a separate chapel for daily Mass and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
“We are happy to continue to serve in the northern New Jersey area,” said Connolly. “We have an established relationship with the Diocese of Paterson and its agencies. Mary Help of Christians Academy was so generous in making this work for us to be here in the Diocese once again in the summer.”