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DETROIT — Some of the youths and young adults attending this year’s World Youth Day in Madrid, Spain will be blogging — using a special website on the Internet — to report their experiences to parents, friends and other people from the parish.
Altogether, about 400 people from the Archdiocese of Detroit will be traveling to Madrid, Spain for World Youth Day 2011, Aug. 16-21, most of them youths and young adults, plus some adult chaperones. Also attending are Auxiliary Bishops Donald Hanchon and Arturo Cepeda.
At least 28 parishes or schools have a contingent attending WYD, and at least four of them will be (or already are) blogging about it, says Laura Piccone-Hanchon, youth ministry coordinator for the archdiocese.
Patty Breen, youth minister at St. Gerald Parish in Farmington, said each of the 13 people going to Madrid from the parish — 11 young people plus herself and two other adults — would take turns sharing their experiences on the blog.
“We wanted a way for people in the parish to be able to travel with us virtually,” Breen says.
Holly Tockstein, youth minister at Christ the Good Shepherd Parish in Lincoln Park, says 14 people are going from the parish — 10 youths and young adults, plus four adult chaperones.
“We thought about: How can we communicate with people back home? — especially parents, but also the wider parish, because so many people have been supporting us with fund-raisers and with their prayers,” she says, explaining why they decided to do a blog.. “Hopefully, many of them will want to follow us along on our trip,” says Tockstein, adding that it will be her first WYD.
“I’m excited to be going, a little bit nervous, but very excited,” she continues.
Tockstein says the seven high-schoolers and three college students going have done quite a bit to prepare themselves spiritually for the pilgrimage, through retreats and service projects.
“It’s going to be an amazing experience, and we’ll really have an opportunity to experience the Universal Church: We’re going to share; we’re going to grow a lot closer to the Lord, but we’ll also grow closer together,” she says.
Stephanie Tierney, youth minister and athletic director at St. Thomas a Becket Parish in Canton Township. will be accompanying the eight youths and young adults, ages 16-20, going from the parish. Also accompanying them will be Fr. James Arwady, associate pastor.
The blog is already up and running, with introductory comments from each of the participants.
Having gone to two previous World Youth Days, Tierney says she isn’t sure just how much blogging can be expected from the young people on the trip during those six days in Madrid: “I’ll try to get the kids to blog some, but they will have been going from morning to midnight, and by the time they get back to the hotel, they’re exhausted.”
But Tierney promised that she would sit down and update the blog every night herself, as well as posting videos to YouTube and photos to Flickr (with links from the blog).
Mike and Anna Vigneron, youth ministers at Immaculate Conception Parish, Ira Township, predict that Madrid will be an amazing experience, and say they hope the blog that’s been set up “will give both parishioners and pilgrims an opportunity to share in the experience of World Youth Day as a parish community.
