March 2025 Edition
This edition is filled with content! Check out ideas for Jubilee Celebration of Teenagers and make sure to join our newly established GroupMe! Below lists the new additions for each section of the newsletter with easy buttons to access the sections quickly!
- Youth Opportunities: NCYC has an updated deadline for registration and camp has new flyers to share!
- Summer Opportunities: shares some updated volunteer opportunities and updated on hiring.
- Calendar: shares all the new additions with links! More additions will be coming for 2025-2026 in the next newsletter.
- Ongoing Formation: we have the dates and locations for our regional gatherings and updated topics for our last DREYM Team chats for this school year.
March 2025
Youth Office Contact
Director of Youth Ministry
Maureen Quinn
573-635-9127, ext. 233
Assistant Director of Catechetical Formation
Mary Madelyn Mertes
573-635-9127, ext. 228
Administrative Assistant
Abby Thompson
573-635-9127, ext. 237
Moderator of Youth and
Young Adult Ministry
Fr. Joseph Luzindana
660-665-2466
Alphonse J. Schwartze
Memorial Catholic Center
2207 West Main St
Jefferson City, MO 65109-0914
Ideas for the Jubilee Celebration of Teenagers
April 27 is a GREAT day to celebrate the youth of our parish! Why you might ask? This date is the Jubilee Celebration of Teenagers and the Canonization date of the soon to be St. Carlo Acutis...plus added bonus, its Divine Mercy Sunday.
Below is a list of ideas of how you might celebrate:
- Host a holy hour with music led by youth of the parish
- Lead a pilgrimage to one of the Jubilee year designated locations in our diocese or nearby diocese:
- Fr Joseph is leading a pilgrimage to St Patrick’s Shrine with his parish in Kirksville. If you are interested in bringing a group, reach out to Kirksville. Parishes attending would need to pack their own lunch for the day.
- Watch party for one of the new films about Carlo Acutis:
- The Boy From Milan releases April 2 on Formed.org. They have resources and content leading up to the countdown of his canonization that may be helpful
- Carlo Acutis: Roadmap to Reality is being released in theatres April 27-April 29 in Columbia, Jefferson City, Lake Ozark and Gravois mills. This could be a fun youth activity for the parish to sponsor or coordinate for a group to attend. To learn more and get tickets check out https://carloacutisfilm.com
- Have a parish mass with teenagers taking on all the leadership roles and host a social for the whole parish after mass to celebrate the youth of the parish, who provide hope to our communities! Ask members of the parish to bring treats or provide donuts.
- Host a gathering for teenagers in the parish that is focused on community-ask some youth who are leaders in the parish to help plan the gathering so its led by youth with interests they enjoy.
- Have a youth takeover of the parish social media: having some youth who are leaders share a Sunday in the life of a teen. (They can share the videos and be approved before posting)
- Provide a day of service with teens, highlighting one of the spiritual or corporal works of mercy or focuses on the environment (such as cleanup trash in the neighborhood of the church or a highway, have a recycling collection after mass of batteries) which celebrated Earth Day and Laudato Si, the 10 year anniversary of the encyclical.
- Host a graduation mass for those graduating from high school this spring who are from the parish.
- Gather at 3pm to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet as a community. If you have a youth choir, it could be sung and led by them.
- Host a Wii bowling tournament at the parish in honor of the newly canonized St Carlo Acutis. Invite people of all ages making it an inter-generational or domestic church event.
Join the Dio Jeff City DREYM Team on GroupMe
This is a new(er) resource for our office that we are going to start using more with DREYM Team. This is a way for us to share resources, get quick feedback from others, share successes, add calendar invites, send out reminders. It functions much like text messages but is its own app (which can be accessed on your phone or a desktop computer) with more features such as events, polls or document sharing.
Event Calendar: We will be using the calendar feature which allows people to easily get the info, reminders, express interest and add things to your personal calendar.
Polls: We will use polls especially when needing quick feedback from people.
Topics: If this grows into something that is used often, then we will add topics that individuals can choose to join. For example there could be a topic on Jubilee year where people could share ideas they are doing in their individual parishes or there could be one for an event we are hosting that those who are going could join and share info throughout the event.
Youth Opportunities
NCYC Registration Information
NCYC Registration can be extended to Wednesday, April 23!! This can give everyone until Easter to secure numbers. The link to register is below.
Checkout the promo video for NCYC 2025 and recap video from 2023! These videos below are great resources to share with youth who are on the fence.
I just had an interview with a young person for summer staff and his first major encounter with God was at NCYC which reminded me that the work we put into things like this is worth it!
To access Zoom video above use the following Passcode: %Qr9@y5e
Also, our very own, Fr. Paul Clark can be spotted in the highlight video from 2023. Check it out below!
These videos are great to share with youth when recruiting, if they are trying to understand what to expect at NCYC.
Summer 2025 Camps
Registration for Camp is open and young people are signing up! We are excited about another great summer and hope to see many youth leaders join us with their youth!
- Camp Lolek Boys: June 8-12
- Camp Lolek Girls: June 15-19
- Camp Siena North & Camp Maccabee South: July 13-18
- Camp Siena South & Camp Maccabee North: July 20-25
As we get closer, we will send the list of youth registered thus far from each parish but if your needing to know sooner, please reach out.
Reminders of changes for this summer:
- We have new sites for camps and are excited about some of the activities these sites will provide! Lolek will be at a different facility than our high school camps.
- Camp Lolek will be housed by deanery and each deanery is being asked to send 2 chaperones who will be housed with the youth and get the opportunity to accompany the young people. There is no charge for the chaperones. (see below on how to signup)
- Camp Lolek will be larger this summer, allowing up to 72 campers each week.
- Camp Maccabee and Camp Siena will both be offered twice, one in the North Deanery (Shelbina) and one in the Southwest Deanery (Camdenton). These camps will need adult volunteers to help with meals and behind the scene roles (see below on how to sign up).
Summer Volunteer and Job Opportunities
Volunteers are an essential part of camp and help bring the impact of camp home to our deaneries and parishes!
Currently we know we need High School Volunteers for Camp Lolek Boys week and could use a few more high school vounteers for Girls week. We also still need adult volunteers across the board for all camps!
Camp Lolek Adult Chaperone Volunteers
We need 2 Chaperone volunteers from each deanery to accompany the youth throughout the week. These adults will help be the eyes and ears in keeping kids safe but even more so they walk with the junior high students throughout the week and then return with them back to their deaneries. Ideal candidates are youth leaders, parents, and those working with youth in the parishes and schools.
Camp Lolek High School Volunteers
High School Volunteers assist with numerous elements of camp, incuding helping with activities, taking care of behind the scene details, acting as junior counselors who are mentored by our program staff and learning to disciple the junior high students. Ideal candidates will be entering sophomore through senior in high school fall 2025 or just graduated. They should desire to be a leader and be okay taking on extra responsibilities. This role will experience first hand the reality "for it is in giving that we receive". High school volunteers can receive at least 60 hours of service or a scholarship to the high school camp.
Camp Maccabee and Siena Volunteers
This year our high school camps are blessed to happen on two properties owned by families within our diocese. Both of these families firmly believe in the impact these camps make on young people's lives. Our summer staff will be split up with both the girls and boys camp happening at the same time. To make this possible, we need adults willing to step up as volunteers to help with meals, setup, takedown, driving, etc. Camps Siena and Maccabee are the bread and butter of our summer programming. We have experienced first hand that adult volunteers are inspired by the witness of the young people and our diocese is positively impacted by the intergenerational relationships that come from these camps.
Camp Nurse for Camp Siena ONLY
We have filled the camp nurse role for all camps except the 2 weeks of Camp Siena. We are looking for an LPN or RN that would want to join us for the week on this retreat experience and be the person who manages the medical needs of camp. The main needs are helping distribute medication daily and assisting campers who are sick or have injuries, navigate needs. This position is on call to assist and would need to stay at camp or live nearby and be able to come to camp daily to distribute medicine and be on call for illness or injury.
This can be a volunteer or paid position, depending on what the person prefers.
Those interested should contact Maureen Quinn directly at maureenquinn@diojeffcity.org, 573-635-9127 ext 233 (work), or 573-301-6868 (cell-text or call)
We need your help in recruiting for Summer Missionaries!
Currently we know we need at least 3 more women and 4 more men and we hope we get great applications to fill these roles in both camp and totus tuus.
If you know of any young adults that love their Catholic faith and love to share it with others, desire to live in a faith community, and want to have fun ALL while getting paid, please share the link and videos below!
Spring 2025 Calendar
January 31
Camp Registration Opened
February 11
DREYM Team Chat
access recording on Catechesis of Good Shepherd from February chat, passcode z9#36OE5
February 19 @ 4pm
NCYC Info Meeting via Zoom
access recording of NCYC Info Meeting, passcode %Qr9@y5e
February 25
Spring Workshop
March 1
Confirmation Retreat @ Tipton (retreat is FULL)
March 11 @ Noon
DREYM Team Chat, topic Church teaching on Immigration
access recording on Immigration from March chat, passcode WW9K.4iP
April 8 @ Noon
DREYM Team Chat, topic Newman Connection & Celebrating Jubilee year with young people
April 23
NCYC Group Registration is Due
April 24
DREYM Regional Gathering @ Lake Ozark from 12-2
DREYM Regional Gathering @ Rolla from 6-8
April 27
Jubilee Celebration of Teenagers and canonization of Carlo Acutis
April 26-May 2
Faith Forward Week with Newman Connection (more info to come & attend next DREYM Team Chat)
April 28
DREYM Regional Gathering @ Monroe City from 11-1
DREYM Regional Gathering @ Kirksville from 6-8
April 29
DREYM Regional Gathering @ Jefferson City from 12-2
DREYM Regional Gathering @ Hermann from 5:30-8
May 1
DREYM Regional Gathering @ Sedalia from 6-8
May 2
DREYM Regional Gathering @ Columbia from 1-3
May 7
6th Grade Vocations Day @ Our Lady of Lourdes
May 13 @ Noon
DREYM Team Chat, topic Confirmation signup updates
Summer 2025 Calendar
May 27-June 6
Summer Staff Training (we will be looking for volunteers)
June 8-14
Totus Tuus: Camdenton, Hannibal, Glasgow
June 8-12
June 9-12
Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Level 1 Training Part 1
June 15-20
Totus Tuus: Sedalia
2 parish spots still available for Totus Tuus, to register click here
June 15-19
June 22-27
Totus Tuus: Columbia, Wein, Wardsville
July 6-11
Totus Tuus: Rolla, Tipton
July 13-18
Camp Maccabee in Southwest Deanery (camdenton)
Camp Siena in North Deanery (shelbina)
July 13-18
Totus Tuus: St. Elizabeth, Mary's Home, Palmyra
July 14-19
Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Level 1 Training Part 2
July 20-25
Totus Tuus: St. Martin, Boonville, Fulton
July 20-25
Camp Maccabee in North Deanery (shelbina)
Camp Siena in Southwest Deanery (camdenton)
July 27
Jubilee Celebration of Youth and canonization of Pier Georgio Frassati
Ongoing Formation
Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (CGS)
Level 1 Training
We are excited to be offering an opportunity for Level 1 CGS training this summer! Hopefully many of you have had a chance to learn about CGS at our Come and See events or workshops the past 2 years. Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is a Montessori style religious education program that nurtures a child's faith by giving them space to encounter the Lord in a unique way. Level 1 training prepares teachers to work with ages 3-6 and is a 2 part training. The first part will be offered over 2 weeks this summer and the second part will be offered summer 2026. You do not have to have a plan to start CGS in your parish to do the training.
Location: St. Thomas More Newman Center Parish, Columbia, MO
Dates: June 9-12 & July 14-17, 9:00 am - 4:30 pm with an hour lunch break, including the option for Mass
Cost: Cost for people from the Diocese of Jefferson City is $200 per person, per summer. To complete the training over 2 summers, the total cost will be $400.
Check out the DREYM Team Chat from February to Learn more from Emily Shull, our diocesan expert and planner on this topic 🙂 linked below!
This cost is significantly reduced thanks to the Knights of Columbus RIB Grant.
Passcode for Zoom recording on Catechesis of Good Shepherd: z9#36OE5
DRE & YM Deanery Meetings
We are hitting the road and will be visiting the diocese far and wide. We will gather as local faith leaders, share a meal, review and share about our year together, share the diocesan office schedule for 2025-26, and discuss how our office can best serve you.
This gathering is designed for the DREs, Youth Ministers and Faith Formation Leaders but because each parish is set up differently with lay leadership, we trust you to decide who is most appropriate for this gathering.
Ultimately we hope you join us for one of these gatherings and make sure to RSVP so we have food for all and bring enough resources.
April 28: Monroe City & Kirksville
DREYM Team Chat
Starting in 2025, we plan to have a guest speaker at the beginning of each DREYM Team chat.
All Chats will be recorded and posted on the website.
- Mark your Calendars for Upcoming Dates: 2nd Tuesday each month at noon
- Tuesday, April 8 at noon (Newman Connection Update &)
- Tuesday, May 13 at noon (Confirmation Signup Update)
- June NO DREYM Team Chat
These DREYM Team Chats are a way for us to check in with one another on a regular basis. Time will include diocesan opportunities and updates, special topic presentations with guest speaker, followed by time to share successes and challenges in parish ministry. This is a great place to bring questions, concerns and get updates.
Passcode for March Zoom recording: WW9K.4iP