With all the talk about young peo­ple get­ting in­volved in crime and oth­er dys­func­tion­al ac­tiv­i­ties, it is heart­en­ing to learn that there is a bunch of young peo­ple who are pas­sion­ate­ly en­gaged in up­lift­ing and pos­i­tive ef­forts such as vis­it­ing se­nior cit­i­zens homes, study groups, prayer re­treats and rais­ing funds to at­tend the largest amal­ga­ma­tion of young peo­ple in the world.

The mem­bers of the St There­sa's RC Church, Wood­brook, Youth Group (STYG) re­cent­ly launched their Mega Fundrais­ing Dri­ve with the aim of rais­ing funds to take 25 young peo­ple and eight chap­er­ones to World Youth Day 2016, a re­lease said.

The 14th In­ter­na­tion­al cel­e­bra­tion of World Youth Day (WYD) will take place in Krakow, Poland, from Ju­ly 25-31, 2016. First held in 1986 un­der the aus­pices of then Pope John Paul II, this cel­e­bra­tion for the world's youth has con­tin­ued with par­tic­i­pa­tion of just un­der one mil­lion youth from around the world.

With the tagline Friends That Pray To­geth­er Stay To­geth­er, STYG is a young group–formed in No­vem­ber 2013.

The group has a set mis­sion, with goals and ob­jec­tives in­clud­ing host­ing youth re­treats every school term, with an an­nu­al Lenten Re­treat in To­ba­go, di­rect­ed by Dea­con Derek Wal­cott, founder of the Catholic Car­ni­val band.

STYG al­so vis­its se­nior cit­i­zens homes once per month and holds week­ly youth group meet­ings every Sat­ur­day at the church. The mem­bers of the youth group are very ac­tive in the Sat­ur­day evening Litur­gy, which was par­tic­u­lar­ly the vi­sion of parish priest Fr Ger­vais Girod, who is al­so the spir­i­tu­al di­rec­tor of the group.

"I am very proud of the young peo­ple. We have to con­tin­ue to af­firm them, love them, pray for them and en­cour­age them," he said.

More re­cent­ly, the group placed third in the Mis­sion in Mo­tion song com­pe­ti­tion at the Na­tion­al Youth Ex­po held ear­li­er this year at the Cen­tre of Ex­cel­lence.

"I re­al­ly want the group to go to WYD, as I think the mem­bers will grow ex­po­nen­tial­ly from such an in­ter­na­tion­al ex­pe­ri­ence," said 16-year-old Gabrielle Branche, the founder/leader of STYG.

"I think the ex­pe­ri­ence will boost the con­fi­dence of the mem­bers of the group when they see what their po­ten­tial can be."

The fund-rais­ing dri­ve was of­fi­cial­ly launched at the week­end Mass­es of Ju­ly 4 and 5 and the ef­fort blessed by Fr Girod and Fr Gre­go­ry, re­spec­tive­ly.

"It is in­vig­o­rat­ing to see how the mem­bers of the Wood­brook Parish com­mu­ni­ty have come alive in sup­port of the young peo­ple," said Lisa Wick­ham, one of the group's par­ent ad­vis­ers.

"I am in­volved, not on­ly be­cause of my daugh­ter, but more im­por­tant­ly be­cause of how I see the de­vel­op­ment of the young peo­ple and I cher­ish their pas­sion, growth and ex­cite­ment. They do the work, we the par­ents mere­ly guide them."

Some of the ac­tiv­i­ties in the dri­ve in­clude a Buss-A-Pot Cur­ry Que, an Au­gust Va­ca­tion Camp for chil­dren ages six to 11, a Tea Par­ty and Fash­ion Show, a Grand Trav­el Raf­fle, A Coin Dri­ve and many more fun(d) ac­tiv­i­ties over the next 12 months.

The group is al­so re­ceiv­ing kind sup­port from Me­dia21, The Docu­Cen­tre Ltd, Maser Print­ers, Pre­ci­sion Signs and Imag­ine Me­dia In­ter­na­tion­al Lim­it­ed.

The young peo­ple are geared up and ex­cit­ed for WYD. "I can't wait to cel­e­brate Mass with peo­ple from all over the world and wit­ness their de­vo­tion to God," said 19-year-old youth group co-or­di­na­tor, Ak­i­lah Mar­shall.

Mean­while 17-year-old Shiyan Cato, the group's trea­sur­er is look­ing for­ward to "praise and wor­ship as one Catholic fam­i­ly with youths from far and wide.

Danae By­er said: "I'm look­ing for­ward to in­ter­act­ing with youths from all over the world, to learn about their cul­tures and how they go about their mis­sion." With a big laugh, she con­tin­ued, "...al­so to meet the Pope and to get some point­ers from him."

Mem­ber Hasani Good­man would like to "so­cialise with youths from dif­fer­ent coun­tries and to wor­ship Je­sus un­der one ban­ner of faith."

More in­fo

Peo­ple in­ter­est­ed in sup­port­ing the group may email stygtt@gmail.com or call 750-6014.