Camp Saint Francis Offers a Place to Serve

By COLLEEN FONTANA
DAVIS HIGH SCHOOL

Rylan Montgomery found the task at hand — drilling a screw into a table without plugging it into a power source — very difficult.

The 16-year-old knew it would take him a long time.

My dad, 50-year-old Robert Fontana, picked up the drill, and said, “Like this unplugged drill, we are working with people who are powerless.”

Reaching out to many such people is the purpose and mission of the yearly service crew known as Camp Saint Francis, held annually in my backyard. For three days during the summer, people — young and old alike — work throughout the community: building, painting, empowering.

Camp Saint Francis began five years ago when my dad felt inspired while talking with some friends.

“They were talking about taking their families to Tijuana for a service project,” my dad explained. “I told them that they don’t need to go to Tijuana; they could come to Yakima.

“There’s a lot of service to be done in our own backyards.”

That first year, five families participated, about 20 people in all. And year by year, more people have joined the project.

This year, 11 families participated, more than doubling the number of people involved. Seventeen teens, seven younger kids and 21 adults camped out in Yakima, giving up their weekend and donating their time to people in need.

The weekend project is appropriately named Camp Saint Francis for Francis of Assisi, who lived a life of poverty and service. Dedicated to helping the poor and sick, Saint Francis spent his life making other people’s lives more comfortable.

By cleaning yards, preparing food at the Union Gospel Mission, painting houses and building porches, the volunteers working at this camp strive to do the same.

“It’s a good thing to help others,” said 55-year-old Bob Kane, a lawyer from Seattle. “We can’t do that enough.”

The father of four brings his kids to the event.

“More than anything else I want the kids to get something out of it,” he said.

Melissa Montgomery, 45, has similar feelings: “The kids need a chance to serve, a chance to give back,” she said.

Colleen Kane, 14, has come since day one, and it’s not just because her parents make her. She believes that service is important.

“I realize that a little bit of work on my part can make a difference in someone’s life,” she said.

Sixteen-year-old Ali Thiel agreed, saying, “Service makes me feel thankful for what I have and happy that I get to help others.”

Camp Saint Francis works with Volunteer Chore Services in Yakima to organize and plan the weekend’s service projects. Theresa Wismer, a 23-year-old volunteer coordinator in Yakima, explained the organization saves all the big projects for the Camp Saint Francis group.

“We pick out the ones that should take more than one day,” Wismer said.

Through hard work, the volunteers’ efforts pay off by very visible leaps and bounds.

“It looks a lot better,” said 14-year-old Sarah Corn about a large yard she helped to clean.

“It’s fun, too,” added her sister, Jessica Corn, 10.

My dad believes that we serve not only because the community needs help, but because serving others enriches the life of the ones who serve.

“Our faith calls us to serve others,” he said. “We do it as families because we want to help our children become compassionate so they will grow up and do the same.”

Catholic Teens Pray in Taizé Tradition

EDITOR’S NOTE: Robert Fontana is the father of Unleashed reporter Colleen Fontana, who co-wrote this column. Colleen Fontana and Mia Walsh both attend the Taizé youth group at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church.

By COLLEEN FONTANA and MIA WALSH
DAVIS HIGH SCHOOL

The lights are off. Only the dim, flickering glow of candles illuminates three icons, each depicting a significant person in the history of the Roman Catholic Church.

Twenty teenagers sit nearby, each holding an unlit candle in their hands. Quietly, they start to sing hymns. Then, one by one, they light their candles and kneel near the icons to pray.

In preparation for the sacrament of confirmation, these teens meet once a week at Yakima’s St. Joseph’s Catholic Church to pray and discuss issues facing the church. They come from different schools, both public and private. And leading their Wednesday night meetings is Robert Fontana, 50, who has been the youth group leader at the church for eight years.

Fontana uses prayer in the Taizé tradition as a way to help strengthen teens’ faith.

After visiting the Taizé (pronounced Teh-ZAY) Community in France in 2000, Fontana says he thought it would be beneficial to use this method with teenagers in a youth group. In 2001, he began to invite young people to participate in the Taizé youth group, which continues today.

Hannah Kaluzny, a 16-year-old sophomore at Davis High School, has been attending the Taizé youth group at St. Joe’s for almost two years.

“It gives me a lot of time to reflect and think about my own life,” she says.

Taizé prayer services involve the use of candles, icons and short, repetitive songs.

For Frank Sziebert, a 16-year-old junior at Davis, the Taizé aspect sets this youth group apart from others.

“Most youth groups have discussion time, but Taizé is something new and different,” he says.

Taizé is not new. The monastic community was founded in 1940 by the late Brother Roger. Since the late 1950s, the Taizé Community has become a symbol of reconciliation between Christians and other groups. It’s made up of more than 100 brothers of Catholic and various Protestant backgrounds from more than 25 countries. And that’s part of its appeal for young people, who have popularized pilgrimages to the community as well as Taizé prayer services around the world.

Fontana explains: “Candles create a beautiful but soft lighting that helps the person praying to get out of their head and get more into their heart and simply be present to God.”

Kaluzny says she finds it easier to do that at the Taizé youth group than during Mass on Sundays.

“This is much more personal,” she says. “Mass is traditional, and it is hard to get stuff out of it, where as here it is more personal and (relevant) to your life.”

Thirteen-year-old Christina Foley, an eighth-grader at St. Joseph-Marquette School, agrees.

“There is a lot of talking in Mass, but Taizé is silent, and we spend more time with God as well,” she says.

Once the Taizé prayer has finished, the teens get to eat a quick snack before regrouping for discussion. Every week there is a new topic to discuss; some pertain to current events and others to church history.

“We don’t just sit there,” says 16-year-old Chris Wilson, a freshman at Eisenhower High School. “We get to ask questions if we don’t understand something.”

And, says 18-year-old Minerva Perez, a senior at La Salle High School, “I can actually be with people my own age.”

These weekly discussions and reflective prayer services create an atmosphere in which students can come together and share their faith.

“Taizé is very relaxing,” Kaluzny says. “And since life is usually busy, it is hard to find time for my faith.”

For these teens, Taizé gives them that time.