The Rise of the Junior Bosconian Clubhouse

By Mrs. Lise Marie Schmidt

Auckland, New Zealand, 1 May 2018 -- In the heart of every new mission there is always a dream that guides the soul and purpose of its existence. With great hope to see it flourish and blossom. The dream of St Don Bosco to love the young with kindness inspired our St Mary’s Parish Youth Leadership team, together with the Direction and support of Rev. Fr Mathew (Parish Priest) and Mrs Agnes Gruijters (Youth Coordinator) for our Parish Youth to run a vocational Programme for the young people of our Parish during School Holidays.

The Idea came as part of our Youth Fundraising, but the focus is to provide quality, safe recreation experiences for children, and above all a chance to relax and enjoy themselves after the long school term. Young people are the core of our Parish and this programme is important to us because we can render our service and to give back to our Community and Parish. After much discussion in our Leaders meeting on the 12th April we settled to trial out our new dream. Firstly, we advertised our new vision after each Sunday Masses on the 15th of April and with joy 15 children registered.

On Monday 16th of April 2018, the dawn of a new beginning, the birth of an Historical event took place and made progressed. We had faith in all we see. Out of 15 children registered 5 attended the first day with the other 7 joined later in the duration of the two weeks programme.

Our programme was a child centred programme where we made the children our priority and made them believe in their own strength. Each day we have a theme that associated with their surroundings and create platforms for them to be able to be themselves and be proud of their identities and cultures. We made them feel inclusive and the same time enjoy the company of others.

Our Daily Activities

Each day we joined our Parish for Morning Masses and then proceed to our Youth Centre for the rest of the day Activities Our daily activities contain, writing, art and crafts, singing, dancing, playing soccer, walk around the fields, tour at Church and Visited the Parish office and the Presbytery for some of them it was their first time there. After each week on Sunday we displayed all their work during the week at church and we had great feed back form the parents and Parishioners. We encountered God as we begin each day. We were privileged to be donated a new microwave, bean bag, stationaries, new wall clock, card games and the DELICIOUS FOOD that kept our Children enthusiastic.

Staff

During the two weeks we had 4 staff/helpers which we were so fortunate to have them on board they have worked diligently to provide a safe and loving environment for our young children. And we would like to acknowledge their service Mrs Vicky Jessop, Ms Jane Benedito, Mr Terry Gruijters and Miss Katelyn Rewcastle Thank you for your service and for your love.

We named our Programme Junior Bosconian Clubhouse to remind ourselves and the young people of our Parish the Greatest Saint of/for Young People. And in the spirit of Don Bosco we shall serve.

After each day they are to write their experiences “It was exciting and fun considering it was the first time we’ve had such programme” “Today was awesome” “it was fun when we collected pinecones, rocks and leaves for our activity” “great people delicious food”

These experiences strived us to do more and pushed our ourselves to do more for the programme.

We started this momentous and significant programme from scratch, but we manged to pull it through because of the amount of love shown by our own parish Members. A great sign of community building and working closely with God each day.

This Programme will continue and with great hope and enthusiasm that it will cultivate and promote Love and Kindness amongst our Young people. We salute ourselves with what we have achieved, and we owe the success of our first ever Holiday programme to our hardworking Priests Rev Fr’s Mathew and James and Parishioners of St Mary’s Avondale.

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