We are excited to be partnering with St. Catherine’s youth ministry program this year.  Below are the details for some upcoming events.  If you have any questions, please contact Joanne Russell ([email protected]) for more information.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16th – ST. CATHERINE’S CARNIVAL from 11-3:30 pm
Free everything!  Free games,  Amazing prizes at our prize booth, Free BBQ lunch, Free ice cream sandwiches and popcorn all day long, Train Rides, Live music, AND so much more!      
Use this link to sign up to earn Confirmation hours and to help with running a game:   https://bit.ly/430dDU5
Use this link to sign up for FREE lunch:  https://bit.ly/3DDefnA
Use this link to earn Confirmation hours and to help bake for the Carnival Cake Walk:  https://bit.ly/44DE6HC.

SAVE THE DATE: SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 24TH – CAR WASH from 12-2 pm AND COLOR WARS from 2:30-4 pm. Wear your YM T-shirt for the Car Wash and bring a white T-shirt for Color Wars.  Earn Confirmation Hours at our Car Wash too as we raise money to support our outreach projects for the homeless, local neighbors in need, the elderly and more. At the Car Wash, we need washers, rinsers, dryers, cooks for our hot dog lunch, and more. And then when the Car Wash is over after a hard day of work, we will have some snacks before our Color Wars. You will want to wear a white t-shirt for color wars (not your youth ministry t-shirt), and bring a towel to sit on in the car too!
Use this link to sign up for the Car Wash:  https://bit.ly/3pPmqKc 
Use this link to sign up for Color Wars:   https://bit.ly/44SBwhq

 

The following is a brief overview of what IGNITE Youth Ministry has done over the past few years. 

PRAYER:  Deacon Art led us in Adoration throughout the school year and the summer months including special worship nights that took place before and after the Steubenville East Catholic Youth Conference.

SERVICE:  We have prepared over 600 sandwiches and delivered them to various soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and sandwich ministries throughout the city of Hartford.

We also hosted a cereal and tuna drive for the food pantry that is run by the Sisters of Charity in Baltic. They came and gave a talk and we prepared desserts with them that were donated to a local homeless shelter.

We made baby blankets for and donated baby items to Saint Gerard's Center for Life.

Fun:   We had our annual Super Bowl party in the youth lounge. We've also had parties for our Blessed Mother's birthday, Advent, Christmas, Halloween, and Valentine's Day.  We had dodgeball and KanJam tournaments. 

We had a great time with messy game night. Thanks to all who came and played! The world can sometimes be a messy place, but it helps to know that God walks with us, even through that mess

ROAD TRIPS:   We boarded buses for a road trip to the XL Center for the KLove (106.9 FM) concert. Seven artists performed including Matt Maher, Captial Kings, and Hollyn. We had floor seats! It was an awesome experience to see them perform live.

We went to the XL Center for Chris Tomlin's Worship Night in America with over 7,000 people from around New England. 

We have spent afternoons playing laser tag and evenings bowling. In the summer, we bowled with seminarians before they returned to seminary.




GUESTS:   The Sisters of Life came to visit from New York City. Our leadership team ran the middle school night and introduced the Sisters as our speakers. Then the team ate dinner with them and helped to load their car with the diapers, baby wipes, baby shampoo, and baby lotion that we had collected.  The Sisters of Life live and work with mothers and babies in crisis. We are proud to support the beautiful work of their apostolate. 

Last year the postulants with the Sisters of Charity came to visit from Baltic with their Vocation Director. They taught us some of the games they play during recreation at the convent. We had Q&A during dinner which was soup and sandwiches because it was the Season of Lent! At the end of the night, we loaded their car with the donations we collected for their food pantry. It was a privilege to contribute to the works of charity that make up their apostolate.

We Skyped with our diocesan seminarians who are studying to be priests and had the opportunity to learn what life is like at the seminary. At our next meeting, we baked cookies and wrote cards. These care packages were then mailed for them to enjoy as they studied for finals. 


LEADERSHIP:   We were honored to serve as the core team for the first Archdiocesean Youth Rally at the Cathedral of Saint Joseph. Over 700 teens attended from parishes across the Hartford, Litchfield, and New Haven counties.  
We worked directly with the Vocations Director for the Archdiocese of Hartford to begin planning in December. The rally ran in April.

Our team members gave witness talks, ran registration, served pizza and led the program as the MCs.




S U M M E R

In July, we took our annual road trip to UMass-Lowell for this weekend retreat. We attended the annual CT Rally at Saint Anne Shrine beforehand. Over 3,000 teens from around the northeast gather for this summer conference. There are over 20 conferences nationwide.  

Since 2013, we have had attended this Catholic Youth Conference. The themes have been chosen (1 John 4:9), God is (Isaiah 2:12), limitless (John 10:10), elevate (Revelation 21:5), and revealed (1 John 4:9). The 2019 summer theme is belong (1 John 3:1).

Our teens have also attended Franciscan LEAD, a week-long leadership retreat that is held the week of the conference. In addition, our college students have returned to serve the conference as volunteer ushers and prayer team members.  



P R O J E C T S

We filmed and produced our Teen Lures Prevention broadcast.

This is a safety and self-awarness program that is mandated by the Office of Safe Environment for middle school Religious Ed and high school Confirmation Prep. 

Our anchors and reporters read the approved script off of our teleprompter to share practical information on how to identify manipulative behavior patterns in relationships. W