Youth Ministry

Patty Gotway, Nursery Coordinator

Nursery care is available as part of our welcome to our youngest members and their families. The Nursery offers a place where infants and young children can experience the love and care of this community, and it offers parents an opportunity to give their full attention to worship and other church activities. The Nursery was reopened in December 2021. Tia Goodloe Gibson and Alison Boerger have both returned to staff the nursery. We are grateful to have these two with such professional qualifications (both hold Masters degrees) to provide expert care for our young clients. Our long time and much-valued staff member Libby Wright, has decided not to return on a regular basis, but she may pop in to lend a hand sometime. We all look forward to having a regular presence again in the future.

Missy Roetter, Youth Coordinator

The youth groups showed resiliency during another pandemic year and were quick to meet on Zoom on Sunday mornings throughout the Spring. The most unfortunate result of the pandemic was the need to postpone the Assisi/Rome Pilgrimage until June 2022. Gratefully, we were able to move our reservations without any penalties. Now the pilgrims are spending their time preparing for the June 2022 trip. The new furniture for the J2A/Pilgrim youth room arrived in 2021. We started a new Rite-13 group #14 this Fall. The leaders are Brian Steensland and Marlene Marchesani. Both Rite-13 and J2A kicked off their fall season with the annual Bradford Woods retreat. Team building and “get to know you” challenges were the focus of the weekend. The J2A group was not successful in building a “seaworthy” raft. But everyone came home tired and relieved that we were back to some normality. This year’s cookie bake was a great success. The teens sold over $11,000 worth of boxes and tubs of dough. Thank you to all those who purchased and supported the teens.