Ninety children and over seventy volunteers participated in this year’s faith camp held in the Town Hall from Monday 18th of July to Thursday 21st July. The children had great fun and experienced the joy of faith in God.
Throughout the week the children were involved in different activities, including arts and crafts, sports, music and drama.
The drama teams were busy preparing various dramas with each group and all their efforts culminated in a wonderful show on Thursday afternoon. Many parents came to see their children act out scenes from the lives of the saints.
The highlight of each day was a children’s mass, celebrated by Fr Patrick Cahill and concelebrated by Canon Michael Fitzgerald. It was wonderful to see the children sing and perform their action songs with great gusto and volume.
Newly ordained priest, Fr Jamie Twohig was present on Wednesday to hear confessions and to celebrate Holy mass.
We are very grateful to the priests of the parish for their wonderful support throughout the week and to the Family of Mary community, especially Br Gabrielle, Br Simone, Sr Marietta and Sr Bridget for their wonderful contribution to the camp.
The Faith Camp depends hugely on the goodwill of many people within our community to help make it the great success that it is. Our sincere thanks to Sean Farrell, proprietor of SuperValu, to John Hayes, the Manager and to the staff for generously providing sandwiches each day for the seventy plus volunteers. We would like to thank Liz Downs and all involved in the Mitchelstown Girl Guides for the use of the Red Cross Hall for the duration of the camp.
A sincere word of thanks to Ann Burke; for the very tasty home baking that she provided each day. We are very grateful to Assumpta Roche and Nancy Hyland for hosting some of the volunteers during the week.
We want to express our thanks to Patricia Dwane, Parish Secretary and to Ger Sheehan, caretaker of the Town Hall for all their help and assistance throughout the week. We are very thankful to Kayren Hayes who very kindly provided a little keepsake photo for each child and volunteer who attended the camp.
Finally, we must acknowledge the amazing volunteers who made the camp happen. Their care and gentleness towards the children and each other truly made the gospel come alive. Their prayerfulness was an amazing example to the children.
We have no doubt that the children’s enduring memory will be the fun, care, respect and love they experienced from the different volunteers they encountered. May God Bless you all.
