I feel every meeting gets me in a deeper relationship with God. Every meeting we have an opening prayer and a closing prayer. Morgan I joined because my friends did...we should meet 3x a month. Robbie

Reflecting on the Gospel, Reflections and Meditations… Helps me understand it better. Little things we do can mean a lot to someone else. Robbie Our adult SVdP Advisor, Mrs. Harper, in my opinion is essential to our meetings. Without her we all would be a mess. She keeps us focused during our meetings, and helps us strengthen our relationship with God. Now I think that’s a very important part of the meetings. Every meeting we have a Sunday gospel to read and to reflect on. We discuss what the gospel means to us. This helps us to a kind of piece together what God is asking us to do in the society and gets us closer to being with him in heaven. Henry

Voice of the Poor – Catholic Social Teaching…Catholics at the Capitol… We learned a lot about issues on the government’s side and on the Christian side. Henry

“I learned a lot when I went there (to the Capitol). I think the payday loan stores should be closed. All they do is get people in debt. For Example, 2 weeks pass after taking the loan & a phone call from the payday store says you didn’t pay the amount that you took out two weeks ago. So they ask you if you have the money and you say no. They will give you two more weeks to pay the amount that you took out. What you didn’t know is that all they did is roll over the amount that you need to pay back and doubled it. So in the end you are paying more …If you don’t pay it back than you have to take out another loan and then after a while you might become bankrupt.” Alyssa

School Service Project Thanks to my religion teacher, Mrs. Ellison, I got to go work at the Saint Vincent de Paul Store. I had fun when I did that, so I decided I should join…The Society. Morgan..Help on projects like painting the stairs, or stocking the food pantry, or just carrying boxes around upstairs. Henry

Filling the SSVdP Pantry

My favorite part being in SSVdP is helping the poor, and being in a deeper relationship with God. You don’t only act as God or Jesus would in the meetings and working at the store. You help people in public because Jesus would; it goes from giving someone your seat at a presentation (Catholics at the Capitol) to picking up something for someone. It shouldn’t matter that you have to sit on the floor or stand at that presentation, because that’s what Jesus would do. Morgan

Reasons I like to work at the store is… because it is a good feeling to be helping people and having fun at the same time. When we are at the food pantry we go down stairs, pick up what we are having a shortage on in the pantry, bring it up and restock the shelves and the cooler. Henry

Being a Vincentian is about acting and behaving as Jesus did… We do all we can to help the poor, needy, helpless, suffering, and the deprived, so that they can live life knowing there is someone that can help in some way. We also need to pray to God for forgiveness and to ask him for help. We believe that all people make mistakes and that nobody is perfect or ever will be except God. Morgan

Food pantry and working at the store…make me feel like I am really doing something and not just sitting around. Robbie At the beginning of the year in religion class we were reading this magazine that talked about kids making a difference in the world, and we said that we should do an outreach project like that. Henry

Fun while we work & help… We have so much fun talking while we work and sometimes singing, while helping people at the same time. We also have fun just looking around the store when we are done. Henry I liked helping after school when we painted the steps. I like doing things that makes me think and be artistic. Alyssa

Decisions… A while ago I decided that I should quit, and I did for a meeting or two…My excuse was it’s not for me, and that I wanted to go to recess. Then I thought that God was calling me to join again because I felt guilty that recess took over my relationship with God. So I showed up for the next meeting. I can’t tell you how happy Mrs. Harper was that day. I think that urge to keep coming back to those meetings is God calling me to be his follower and I accepted that call to follow him and do good in the name of God. Henry

I liked helping after school when we painted the steps. I like doing things that makes me think and be artistic. Alyssa

Youth & Young Vincentian Summer Calendar: May 30 th - Baraboo – North Central Region Mtg Twice a month – June, July and August – SSVdP Youth & Young Vincentian Conference Work Session & Meeting June 13 th - Present at Green Bay Diocesan Council Mtg Help with Suicide Prevention Network’s both July 3 & 4 July 12th - Holy Family Fest - Face Painting & Frisbee Contest August 9th – Collect Food during Waterfront parade August – Help with Back-To-School program Sept to May - twice a month mtgs at school during lunch September 20 th – FRIENDS OF THE POOR Walk October – Boy Scout Food Drive October 20 th - Present at Annual Vincentian Membership Mtg November & December – Help with Christmas Basket Program

YOUTH VINCENTIANS who helped with this presentation: Alyssa Hornick, Henry Benson, Robbie Paul, Morgan Sislo, Lexi Hayes, Andy Lang, Justin Miller, Tyler Erickson.

Very special THANKS to our School Advisor, Mrs. Barbara Brodahl and Mrs. Ellison for her project idea and to our St. Joseph Conference Advisor, Mrs. Jeanne Harper.