ARCHDIOCESE — Schools from throughout the Archdiocese of Cincinnati always have been engaged in service projects, and in recent years, many Catholic high schools have embarked on overseas mission trips or service ventures in the United States. Three schools, Roger Bacon High School, Moeller High School and St. Ursula Academy were among those sending students on these trips.

Roger Bacon High School

Last year, a group of Roger Bacon students traveled to Negril, Jamaica to do mission work. In September, just as they were beginning college, they decided they wanted to return, even though they would have to pay for the trip themselves. On July 28, Chelsey Ahlers, Laura Brichler, Brad Evans, Megan Gierhart, Jay Kearney and Mike Post headed to Jamaica with Roger Bacon High School’s Community Outreach Director Barb Coyle to work with the Franciscan Friars at Mary Gate of Heaven Parish.

The group was responsible for two tasks for the week: to run the Mary Gate of Heaven Bible Camp and to build a house for a community member. In the spring, the group began to meet to plan the camp. Knowing the campers would range in age from four to 17, they used a safari theme for the week and organized each day around a bible lesson with lots of songs, games and craft projects. Their planning paid off. A nine-year old girl, Davia, said, "I love Bible Camp. I wish Bible Camp was every day of the summer! Jay Kearney helped build Mr. Morris’s house and said, "Seeing some of the people that we helped out in the past, like Ms. Enid, and seeing how happy they are to see us, it’s obvious that we have and are making a difference.The group posted a blog on the Roger Bacon site, www.
rogerbacon.org, while they were in Jamaica.

Moeller High School

This summer, 106 Moeller High School students, or 44 percent of Moeller’s upcoming senior class, volunteered their time to serve on mission trips. The school offered nine missions this summer — from Honduras, Nicaragua, and Mexico to Mississippi, Louisiana and Kentucky to the inner-city areas of Cincinnati. In addition to working on various service projects, such as rehabbing buildings, assisting in orphanages, cleaning up remnants of Hurricane Katrina, students will be exploring social-justice issues and finding pathways to solidarity and peace.

St. Ursula Academy

St. Ursula Academy students immersed themselves in mission work this summer traveling from east to west in an effort to help those in need.

The mission trips took several students and their chaperones to East Camden, N.J., where they worked at a variety of sites in schools serving hot meals, assisting at a drop-in center for persons infected and affected with HIV and AIDS, working on housing construction, helping at the South Jersey Food Bank, and performing various projects with several other agencies in Camden and the Philadelphia area.

Another group of students and chaperones went to Billings, Mont., to serve the Native American community. The students helped facilitate a religious education program for the youth in the area and assisted with programs at an outreach facility for women. In addition, the group attended information sessions about Native American culture and visited an Indian reservation.

At Big Laurel Mountain in Kermit, W.Va., yet another group learned about Appalachian heritage while helping out at the Marrowbone Community Food Pantry, the community’s summer camps, and at the Web of Life Ecology Center.

Senior Cara Hemmer was among the group of students who worked at a vacation bible school for young children in Billings. She said that her experiences opened her eyes to different cultures and that the children in bible school were very loving. "You couldn’t help but to love them back. This was one of the best experiences of my life," she said.

Rachel Kemper, community service director at St. Ursula, has been dedicated to the summer mission trips for several years because it is a win-win for the students and those whom they serve. "Each year these mission trip experiences bring a richness to our student body that we could never know as we plan them," she noted." The students’ joy in sharing their stories and pictures solidifies how these experiences will stay with them far beyond the education at St. Ursula. We emphasize each year as students return from these mission trips that although the trip ends, the experience must live on. We encourage them to actively look for ways to share the truths they have learned during the experience."

COURTESY PHOTO

St. Ursula Academy students prepare dinner at a men’s homeless shelter in Billings, Mont. Pictured from left are Olivia Danenhauer, Ali Girten, Megan Rogg, Olivia Roeder, Cara Hemmer, Jenna Bareswilt, Jackie Jansen, Kristen Meyer and Katie Wash.